Shining Jewels of America
by 8-bit thief
Summary: Three students take part in the Gunpla battle club and are paired together for the upcoming tournament. Will they chart a path to victory, or will their clashing personalities send them to defeat? Rated T for some language and gratuitous robot violence. Beta'd by themadDrPatchwork and SilverNyan
1. The Start of a New Team

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gundam Build Fighters, Gundam Build Fighters Try, or any Gundam series mentioned. All I own are my gunpla.**

 **This story was beta'd by themadDrPatchwork and our shared friend SilverNyan.**

* * *

The Barbatos Lupus Rex descended to the floor of a desert canyon, mace held up in preparation for combat. Its pilot had seen his opponent dart into the canyon, and quickly pursued, not wanting to give his opponent the time to prepare an ambush. "Come out you coward so I can end this fight." the pilot said, eyes darting around for signs of his opponent. The sound of a pulled tripwire sent his eyes downward, and he quickly leapt back to avoid the brunt of a sudden explosion. "How did he set up a trap so quickly?!" Dust and debris blocked the Barbatos' pilot's vision before alerts popped up along his screen. The obscuring cloud was rent apart as hundreds of bullets impacted the Barbatos Lupus Rex. The gundam shifted its massive mace to act as an impromptu shield as his opponent finally came into view. Firing away at the Barbatos was a customized Heavyarms Kai painted in desert camo, the iconic dual gatlings attached to the backpack by an arm system that allowed it to shift from storage on the backpack to being held in its hands as they currently were. The gundam also had a pair of fold-out heat knives attached to the underside of the forearms as well as the back of the lower legs **(1)**. The Barbatos pilot grinned and lunged forward, mace held high to squash the custom Heavyarms Kai. "I have you now!" he yelled, mace swinging down. The Heavyarms' pilot simply grinned and turned sideways, the mace whizzing by as the dual gatlings shifted to the backpack. The right arm-mounted heat knife folded out and the Heavyarms Kai cut off the Barbatos' mace-wielding arm at the elbow joint with an uppercut. The Heavyarms Kai then reached into a hip pack with its left hand and slammed something onto the Lupus Rex's chest armor before kicking it away. The enemy pilot had only a few seconds to recognize the device on his gundam's chest as a time-delay bomb before his mobile suit was consumed in the ensuing explosion. Once again the dust cleared, this time revealing the Barbatos Lupus Rex in pieces on the canyon floor.

* * *

Suddenly an announcement sounded. "Battle ended." the computerized voice said as the canyon dissipated into particles, leaving two gunpla models, the torn apart Lupus Rex and the custom Heavyarms Kai. A hand reached down and clenched the Heavyarms Kai, lifting it into the air in victory. "Ah yeah! Once again my Heavyarms Kai Desert Recon takes the match!" The speaker was a 19 year old man, his black hair tied in a low ponytail with two bangs framing his green eyes, wearing a desert camo jacket over a gray t-shirt that said 'my other car is a Ball' and forest green long jeans with brown sandals. His face was set in a smirk as he turned to the audience surrounding the gunpla battle system while his opponent picked up the remains of his figure. "Does anyone wish to challenge me? I will face any opponent!" He said, before he was grabbed painfully by the ear.

"Ow! What the heck?!" The man yelled at his assailant, a dark-skinned 20 year old woman with long frizzy black hair and purple eyes set in a glare. She was wearing a red hoodie with the Zeon logo on the back over a blue Celestial Being t-shirt and black shorts with red shoes. "Mathias, what are you doing here?! The team meeting was supposed to start ten minutes ago!" The now named Mathias worked himself out of the woman's grip and began rubbing his ear. "Geez Rose, did you have to grab my ear that hard? I figured it would be fine to skip, given the tourney is coming up. Got to keep me and Heavyarms in peak condition." Rose's glare seemed to intensify as she grabbed the collar of Mathias's jacket and dragged him away. "Did you forget that this tournament is a team event? That is why we are having the team meetings, to insure we work together, you ass!" Eventually the two ended up at the gates of the Orlando Institute of the Arts **(2)**. Rose continued to drag Mathias over to a small clubhouse underneath an oak tree and busted through the door. "Hey Adrian, I got our runaway back!" she yelled to the sole occupant of the clubhouse, who was standing by the three combined gunpla battle systems in the center of the room. Adrian was a 20 year old man with short brown hair that looked constantly messy and a pair of glasses over sharp blue eyes. He was wearing a buttoned blue shirt and blue jeans with black sneakers. Adrian pushed his glasses up, a glint reflecting off as he said "I see that. Now that we are all here we can start practicing." He then turned back to the Deathscythe Hell EW Custom in front of him and began attaching extra weapons. Rose frowned at the abrupt dismissal and tossed Mathias in front of one of the GP Base slots on the battle system Adrian was at. Mathias grumbled as the three pulled out their GP Bases and the system started up.

* * *

The battle system stated in its usual bland tone "Gunpla Battle simulation mode, startup. Model damage level, set to C. Please set your GP Base." The three fighters set their GP bases as the Plavsky Particles began to form the arena they would train in. "Beginning Plavsky particle dispersal. Field 7, Ruins. Please, set your gunpla." Mathias set his Heavyarms Kai DR onto the battle system while Adrian set down his Deathscythe Hell EW Custom, mostly unmodified from the official build, the only additions being two of the original Deathscythe's shield and a pair of beam pistols on the hip skirts. Rose set down a straight build Burning Gundam, earning a snort from Mathias. "What, you got a problem with my gunpla?" Rose asked with a glare. Mathias answered "Only that it is a straight build. Don't you know a custom design is always superior to a straight build when you ignore piloting skill? Even Adrian understands this, though he admittedly falls short as well with just adding some accessories. Not like my Heavyarms Kai Desert Recon. I made every part myself and fully overhauled the original design to boost every strength and eliminate every weakness. I may be younger, but it is clear to me who among us is better at gunpla." Rose started to turn the same color as her namesake at Mathias's statement, and quickly yelled "You are goddamned lucky we have to team up for the tournament or I would kick your ass so hard your **gunpla** would feel it!" Before Mathias could reply, Adrian interjected. "Would the two of you stop bickering. Our training match is about to begin." At Adrian's comment, the battle system said "Battle start." Rose glared at the two before turning back to the battlefield. "Rose Fayre, Burning Gundam, let's fight!" Mathias smirked and said "Mathias Winns, Heavyarms Kai Desert Recon, ready to sortie!" Adrian merely pushed his glasses back up and calmly stated "Adrian Brown, Deathscythe EW Variant, launching." The three gundams landed within the ruined city, which Mathias immediately recognized as the location of the final battle from Gundam Wing Endless Waltz.

"Alright, I set this for a 3 on 3 match against the mocks built into the system. I will cloak and establish an ambush. When the enemy gets into range, I want Mathias to lay down cover fire to allow Rose to get close and initiate close quarters combat. While the enemy is distracted by the two of you, I will strike from behind. This way we insure success with minimal damage to our gunpla." Adrian stated calmly. Mathias opened a video feed with Adrian and said "You want me to provide cover fire?! Screw that! I'm gonna go in and crush those mocks like cardboard!" Mathias launched his Heavyarms Kai DR forward to the shock of Rose and Adrian. Rose immediately let out a snarl and yelled "Oh, like _hell_ I'm going to let you hog all the glory!" Rose quickly leaped up and sent her Burning Gundam flying through the air in an attempt to get ahead of Mathias and his Heavyarms Kai. Adrian merely sighed as the bat wings of his Deathscythe EW Variant folded close and cloaked itself, following after his teammates. "It would seem my plan is being ignored. How annoying."

The Heavyarms Kai DR stopped at an intersection and looked around. "Where are those mocks. I want to end this match as quickly as possible. I hate working with others. Always getting in my way." Suddenly an alert signaled an attack from above. The Heavyarms Kai DR looked up only to be knocked to the ground by the Burning Gundam crash landing at the same location. "Hey, watch where you're going!" The Heavyarms Kai DR shoved the Burning Gundam off of itself. Rose opened a video feed with Mathias and shouted back "Why should I! I am not letting you pull this lone wolf bullshit! This a team effort dumbass, or did you forget that?!" "Screw team effort! I don't need help to handle three mocks, especially if it's coming from a complete noob!" "Excuse you, what the _fuck_ did you just call me?!" "You heard me! Only a complete amateur would step into a gunpla battle with a straight build! You didn't even pick a good gundam for a straight build! The Burning Gundam has almost no ranged combat! You should have picked a more decent figure, like the 00." Rose saw red and punched the Heavyarms Kai DR into a building. "How **dare** you! Do you get off on insulting everyone around you?! I don't care how good you think you are, I will _wreck_ your **shit**!" Immediately after Rose said that, the Burning Gundam had an arm sliced off at the shoulder by the Heavyarms' heat knife. "You know what, screw this team match! I am going to tear your gunpla to shreds and show you just how out of your league you are!" Mathias shouted as the Heavyarms Kai DR lunged forward to continue attacking the Burning Gundam.

Suddenly a trio of beam shots melted the head and dual gatlings of the Heavyarms Kai DR. Rose and Mathias were completely focused on each other in their argument and never noticed the three mocks surrounding them. Mathias immediately purged his gundam's backpack before the dual gatlings exploded, launching the Heavyarms Kai DR into the Burning Gundam and sent both into a building. The three mocks then fired a volley of beam shots into the hole, melting through the armor of both gundams. When they stopped firing, the two gundams were shown to have taken critical damage. Neither were hit in their reactor cores, but all of their joints were destroyed, leaving Rose and Mathias as sitting ducks. The mocks stepped forward to finish the two off when the center one was impaled by a beam scythe. The Deathscythe EW Variant decloaked and drew its beam pistols, letting off several shots at the remaining two mocks. The two mocks were repeatedly hit in the reactor core and detonated immediately.

* * *

"Battle ended." The battle system began shutting down, returning the three gunplas inanimate once more. The Deathscythe EW Variant had its arms extended to the sides and holding its beam pistols while its beam scythe was laying in front of it. The Heavyarms Kai DR was lain atop the Burning Gundam, and both were in perfect shape. Luckily for Rose and Mathias, the simulation was set to damage level C, which meant all the damage they took was simulated. As soon as the battle system was completely shut down Rose slugged Mathias in the jaw. "That was for attacking me you _ass_!" Mathias rubbed his jaw before responding with a gut punch. "You should have just stayed out of my way! Maybe then you wouldn't have gotten your ass handed to you by a **mock**!" Mathias was cut off from saying more by Rose lunging and pinning him to the floor. "Don't forget you lost to a mock as well jackass!" Rose shouted while throwing a right hook at Mathias's face. Mathias headbutted Rose and shoved her off of him, and the two quickly devolved into a brutal slugfest. Adrian merely watched before picking up his Deathscythe EW Variant. "This is going to be harder than I expected." he said before walking out of the clubhouse.

* * *

 **8-bit Thief: Welp, here it is, my second fanfic ever! *throws confetti* To be honest, I wasn't planning to write another story until I finished the current arc of Dr Patchwork and Mr Clank, but I was watching GBF GM's Counterattack and had a sudden burst of inspiration to write this, it also helped I have been planning a story like this for a year or so and just couldn't figure out how to start. Also, I am truly sorry for the delay in the next chapter of Dr Patchwork and Mr Clank. For some unknown reason our muse is giving us the cold shoulder. We have been working on it, but it is slow going. I will say that it is very close to being finished, so be on the lookout. Anyway, on to marked references**

 **(1) most of the OC gundam designs I show are possible because I built them as a guide for when I would start writing this story. The Heavyarms Kai DR and Deathscythe EW Variant are not ones that I built, and therefore I have no idea if they are physically buildable.**

 **(2) this is not an actual school in real life. This is an imagined school in the world of GBF, where I imagine gunpla battle had kickstarted a resurgence of the various arts and caused several schools devoted to them to open across the world.**

 **8-bit Thief: Another note will be my use of terms and names. During battle, gunpla will be referred to as either gundam, mobile suit, or mobile armor, depending on the figure and situation. Also, gunpla names may be shortened as needed unless the name is spoken, and even then it may be shortened for the sake of simplicity. Expect the name to only really be given in full during launch or when introducing the gunpla itself to those unfamiliar with it. For instance, the Heavyarms Kai Desert Recon would be shortened to Heavyarms Kai DR or just Heavyarms except when necessary. I hope you guys liked this, and I will be seeing you all in the next chapter! JA NE!**

 **P.S. I am open to accepting any OC Gunplas and Gunpla fighters. They can be individual or team fighters. If I accept your submission, you will be credited in the disclaimer for the chapter your character/s and/or gunpla/s appear in. My only request is to try and make any Gunpla fighters from America. While I will not immediately reject foreign characters, this story is set in America, and as such most of the cast will be from America. If I cannot work a character as American born or as a foreign exchange student but still wish to use them, they will be saved for the world tournament should I get there and their creator will be informed. I will still try to cameo them should such a situation arise.**


	2. Team Training, A Rival Appears!

**Hey everybody, 8-bit Thief here with the next chapter of The Shining Jewels of America! Some of you might be wondering on the name, as it seems to have no connection to the story except the location. My answer to this: ~Spoilers!~ :3 All will be revealed eventually, have patience. Speaking of patience, I'm terribly sorry to say that the next chapter of Dr. Patchwork and Mr. Clank is still incomplete. Me and themadDrPatchwork are still having trouble getting our muses to work with us. I don't actually have Undertale, which that story is currently in, and while I** _ **can**_ **work with wiki, it just isn't as inspiring. But don't worry, we will complete it and continue that story. We aren't going to let it die. That said, I might work on an apology omake and post it up there. But enough about that, let's get on with the show!**

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Eventually Rose and Mathias had separated from their fight in the clubhouse, and were now nursing their wounds in the nearby lounge seats. Mathias held an ice pack to his left eye, bruised by Rose's right hook, while Rose was rubbing some balm on various bruises on her stomach and arms. Adrian stored his Deathscythe EW Variant in his custom belt pouch and sighed. "It appears to me that, regardless of personality, we will not be able to prepare for the tournament by fighting mocks. We need a greater challenge." Mathias pulled the ice pack from his eye with a wince and said "I agree. Mocks are just going to dull my skills, and I need to be at my best to keep this 'team' from losing." Rose glared at Mathias but chose to continue rubbing the balm on herself and merely asked "Where can we go to train? Most of the teams we could train against are **in** the tournament, and I for one don't want them knowing what I am using." Mathias merely grinned and said "I know of a place."

* * *

The three fighters now stood outside a gunpla battle arcade called 'The Winning Streak'. Mathias turned to Rose and Adrian and cockily said "Welcome, to my home." Rose sputtered and said "Wait, **this** is where you live?!" Mathias rubbed the back of his head and replied "Well, not exactly. My parents have been running this place since back when gunpla battle was owned and operated by PPSE. Now it's a hangout for both teams and those who still stick to the original style of gunpla battle, like me." With his piece saipd, he went to open the doors, but turned back around. "I will warn you, some of us take gunpla a bit…seriously."

The group entered the building and saw hundreds of battle systems of various size across a room the size of a ballroom. Most of the systems were in use, both by single fighters and teams. A few others were sitting at a bar, drinking waters or sodas. One of the drinkers, a 21 year old with an A&W saw Mathias enter and shouted "Major general Winns! How excellent to see you back on the front!" At his shout many of the other patrons turned, some of the matches being ended prematurely so that some of the fighters could see. Everyone that did turn called out to Mathias as major general Winns. Rose and Adrian were completely confused while Mathias simply ignored it outside of waving and lead the two to a side room. When the door shut Rose said "What the hell was that?!" Mathias awkwardly said "Like I said, some of us take gunpla seriously. My dad was in the army, so he enforced a military ranking system **(1)** amongst us. Him and mom are the general and lieutenant general respectively, and I am major general due to being the best fighter here. Every one of us serves as a member of one of the factions of the Gundam series, but we all serve as a single force. As much as I hate it, we are stuck together, so you might as well learn the ranks and members." Mathias then spent an hour mentioning everything he could about 'The Army of United Factions', such as the ranking system, annual tournament, and some of the in-universe Gundam factions the members are a part of. Adrian and Rose then spent another half-hour absorbing the information before Mathias lead them to another section of the arcade. This new section was the size of a lecture hall, leaving Rose and Adrian to wonder just how big the building actually was, and had six four-unit battle systems, and all but one were in use in three-on-three team battles, and a single battle system in the back. The one four-unit system not in use had a team dressed in the uniform of the original Black Tri-Stars standing by it. One of them, a fair-skinned 23-year old with short black hair and gray eyes and built like a bear, stepped forward and said in a slight Russian accent "Major general Winns, I was surprised to hear you call us up for a training battle, and even more so that it would be a team exercise. I thought you would never be a part of a team?" Mathias frowned and responded "So did I lieutenant Dolohov, but the school tournament for entry to state is a team tournament, so I am here to insure I don't have crap to hold me back." Dolohov frowned at Mathias's statement but slightly nodded. "Very well, then I, second lieutenant Dolohov, leader of the Dark Tri-Stars, will do my best to help alongside my teammates, corporals Shepard and Higgs." The other two behind him, corporals Alex Higgs and Thomas Shepard saluted, showing their own agreement. With that done, all six took their position around the battle system as it activated.

"Gunpla Battle combat mode, startup. Model damage level, set to B. Please set your GP Base." The six set their GP bases as the machine began creating the battlefield. "Beginning Plavsky particle dispersal. Field 3, Forest." The particles settled to reveal a forest in the middle of autumn, orange leaves falling to the ground. "Please, set your gunpla." Mathias, Rose, and Adrian set their gunpla while the three members of the Dark Tri-Stars pulled out three identical gunpla. All three piloted a UC-era Dom, though the three gunpla were outfitted with two pairs of the Zaku's shoulder shields and had the Gouf's forearms, and presumably the accompanying heat rods. Finally, all three had what appeared to be the G14X31Z 'Screaming Nimbus' from the Gundam Seed Destiny iteration of the Black Tri-Star team, and all three were equipped with a pair of Type 2 Heat Sabers and a Raketen Bazooka **(2)**. In short, the three gunpla were a combination of the three most well-known MS units of the Zeon army painted like standard Doms and well equipped to handle any threat. With all six gunpla set, the two teams readied for battle as the system said "Battle start." "Rose Fayre, Burning Gundam, let's fight!" "Mathias Winns, Heavyarms Kai Desert Recon, ready to sortie!" "Adrian Brown, Deathscythe EW Variant, launching." The Dark Tri-Stars followed them with their launch phrase. "It is time." Dolohov said as Thomas followed with "To cry havoc." and Higgs finished by saying "And let slip." before all three shouted "The dogs of war! Dark Tri-Stars, heading out!" All six gunpla launched out into the forest.

* * *

Mathias, Adrian and Rose landed together in a small clearing and grouped up. "So, these guys operate like the Black Tri-Stars? This should be a cakewalk then." Rose said before an explosion occurred ahead of her to reveal the Dark Tri-Stars charging at them, utilizing the infamous 'jet stream attack'. Rose charged forward, her Burning Gundam leaping into the air over the first Dom in order to make use of the same flaw in their strategy Amuro Ray had, only to be caught by the legs by twin heat rods from the second Dom and hit by a bazooka shot from the third. The Burning Gundam was launched free of the heat rods, its entire lower body destroyed by the powerful Raketen Bazooka. Mathias and Adrian dived sideways as the Tri-Stars darted past, a particle field appearing to stop Adrian's return fire with his beam pistols. The three charged back into the forest and disappeared. Adrian opened a com with Mathias and said "Information, now." Mathias smirked and said "The Dark Tri-Stars idealized the original Black Tri-Stars and emulated their team-based combat style while still operating for single combat. Their 'jet stream attack' is much more efficient due to learning from the Tri-Stars' fight with Amuro and cover the sky as well as their sides. The 'Screaming Nimbus' from the ZAFT iteration of the team is altered to release an I-field which, when powered by all three at once, is capable of stopping even a fully charged satellite cannon or a mega particle beam from a Big Zam. Only melee beam weapons work against them, and all three are proficient in dual-wielding their heat sabers and heat rods. Dolohov himself is the best of the three. I had many a good training session with him." Adrian nodded as the Deathscythe cloaked while Rose opened a com. "Why the **hell** didn't you warn me that would happen?!" Mathias glared and merely responded with "That was payback for the mock fight." The Heavyarms then let loose a short burst of fire at the Burning Gundam, causing it to explode, before beginning to set tripwire traps around itself.

The Dark Tri-Stars stopped in a small clearing, spreading out as their hidden camera they set up as they passed the enemy showing them what was occurring in the clearing they just left. "I can't believe the major general would kill his own teammate. I mean, I know he doesn't like team fights, but still." Alex Higgs commented. Thomas Shepard nodded and said "I agree, that just isn't right." Dolohov interrupted the two and said "Focus on that later. Mathias is setting traps as usual, but what of his other teammate?" At his comment, Alex and Thomas turned back to their video feeds and said "He's gone." Dolohov nodded and stated "He was piloting a Deathscythe, be prepared for anything." Immediately as he said that, Thomas's Dom was impaled by a beam scythe as Adrian reappeared, flying back towards Mathias's location. "Thomas! God damn you!" Alex drew his twin heat sabers and chased after Adrian, ignoring Dolohov's orders to fall back. Adrian watched as the Dom followed him. 'Excellent,' Adrian thought, 'now I just have to lead him back and Mathias can eliminate him before we hunt down the last.' The Deathscythe EW Variant suddenly tripped over a tripwire, and both it and the close pursuing Dom were consumed in a massive explosion. Dolohov, having retreated to a new clearing after Adrian had darted off with Alex in tow, saw the explosion and swore. "Shit, that means both Thomas and Higgs are down. How worse could this get." Dolohov then froze as a warning signal appeared, warning that something was behind him. Activating a rear camera showed the Heavyarms pointing its dual Gatling at the Dom's back. Dolohov merely closed his eyes as the Heavyarms released a full salvo, tearing the Dom apart before the system said "Battle ended."

As the system deactivated, Rose grabbed the two halves of her gunpla and stormed into one of the nearby rooms set aside for repairing gunplas. Dolohov too grabbed his Dom and turned to Mathias. "Major general, I greatly respect you for your battle skill. As such, I will simply say this. Your team effort needs work." With that said, he nodded to Adrian before heading to the same room Rose had. Thomas and Alex grabbed their gunplas and gave Mathias the stink eye before heading to a different room. Mathias turned to Adrian, who shook his head, heading to another room with his gunpla. Mathias then turned to his Heavyarms, still posed in its finishing attack on Dolohov's Dom and said to himself "All I need is you Heavyarms. You are the best teammate I could ever have."

Rose set her gunpla on the provided table and grabbed an x-acto knife, before letting out a wordless shout and jammed the knife into the table. She let loose another wordless yell and swept her arm along the table, dislodging the knife and knocking everything but her gunpla to the floor. "God **damn** him! I am going to **murder** that **asshole**!" Rose jumped when she heard Dolohov chuckle as he closed the door behind him. "Quite the mouth you have there." he commented, picking up the x-acto knife. Rose frowned and asked "What, do you have a problem with that?" Dolohov chuckled again and held his hands up in surrender before setting the knife down on the table. "Not at all, my grandmother told me of my mother's childhood, and she was worse." Rose frowned and turned around to stare at her damaged gunpla, and Dolohov rested his hand on your shoulder. "You are hurt at the major general's actions in the battle. Do not worry, just let it out." Rose shook under Dolohov's hand and let loose a drawn out yell that slowly shifted into sobs. "H-How could he d-do that?! We are supposed to be a t-team!" Dolohov patted her shoulder. "There, there. That is good. It does not do to leave things bottled up. Come, let me help you fix your gunpla." He pulled a stool over and sat down, picking up the top half of Rose's gunpla. "Ah, the Burning Gundam. A fine mech for one whose spirit burns fierce. Truly a good companion for you. Perhaps we can make it a bit better though, no?" He smirked, and behind her tears, Rose smiled, eager to show Mathias up. Screw what he told her, her gunpla would be the best on the team!

* * *

Adrian and Rose left the workrooms, Rose hiding her gunpla behind her back, and saw Mathias talking to another team. Mathias turned and said "I am still convinced that you guys are hopeless, but unfortunately I still need you. Therefore, I got us a new team match. These are privates Murray, Hawk, and Cole, new recruits to the AUF and members of the newly formed Team Astray. They combined the Astray Frames with the X Gundam variants and operate two different gunplas depending on their mood. They will be using their 'samurai' gunpla for this match, so maybe this time we can actually win without losses." Rose opened her mouth to yell, but shut it after a moment. Adrian chose to merely walk to the battle system, and was promptly joined by the other five. "Gunpla Battle combat mode, startup. Model damage level, set to B. Please set your GP Base." The six set their GP bases as the machine began creating the battlefield. "Beginning Plavsky particle dispersal. Field 8, Sky." A series of floating islands appeared before the two teams, a few islands connected to one another by vines while others floated freely against the cloudy sky. "Please, set your gunpla." Mathias and Adrian set their gunplas while Rose revealed hers. It was still the Burning Gundam, but it had some slight modifications. The forearms were replaced by duplicates of the right forearm of the Hi-Nu Gundam with the built in machine guns, two extra ammo magazines for them attached to the back skirt armor. Also, Mathias noticed the beam sabers stored on the side skirt armor were altered to look similar to the beam sabers of the Strike Freedom, and he would bet they could combine like them as well. "I see Dolohov helped you, though I don't understand why. Regardless, thank god you aren't using a straight build anymore, though I'm not sure if this is much of an improvement." Rose ignored him, and Mathias was surprised. Rose had always had a huge temper with a short fuse, so to see her not react to his statement was shocking. He turned to look forward as the members of Team Astray set there gunplas. Each one was built with the body and waist of an Astray mobile suit, the Red Frame, Gold Frame, and Blue Frame Second L to be specific, and had the limbs and head replaced with the Gundam X. The Astray Red Frame was also equipped with a Flight Unit, and all three carried the standard armaments of their straight build Astray counterparts. Mathias inwardly scoffed at the sheer simplicity and uniformity of the enemy team's gunpla, but didn't comment. They would see the error of their designs soon. "Battle start." the system said as their gunpla came to life. "Rose Fayre, Burning Gundam Beta, let's fight!" "Mathias Winns, Heavyarms Kai Desert Recon, ready to sortie!" Adrian Brown, Deathscythe EW Variant, launching." The members of Team Astray smiled to each other. "Gary Murray, Astray X Gold, heading out!" "Ebon Hawk, Astray X Blue, let's go!" "Nathan Cole, Astray X Red, launching!" The six gunpla launched out into the sky that was their battlefield.

Almost immediately the Burning Gundam Beta pulled ahead, only to be intercepted midair be the Astray X Red, it's Gerbera Straight katana aimed to split the Gundam in half. What happened next had Mathias freeze in midair. The Burning Gundam Beta actually _pirouetted_ in mid air, dodging the katana by a hair. Now behind it, the Burning Gundam Beta raised its arms, the built-in machine guns riddling the Astray's backpack with holes. Nathan immediately purged the pack before it detonated and dropped to a nearby island. Before he landed, a beam saber shot through the smoke and impaled the Astray X Red, causing it to explode. As Rose flew down to retrieve her beam saber, the Heavyarms Kai DR continued to float in midair, Mathias's mind frozen on replay of Rose's maneuver. 'That dodge, it was just like how _she_ used to fight.' So caught up in his thoughts, Mathias did not notice the warning signs in his cockpit, notifying him that the Astray X Blue was right behind him, Tactical Arms backpack in sword form ready to bisect him. He got pulled out of his thoughts by the distinct sound of a beam weapon igniting behind him. Turning around, Mathias saw the Astray X Blue ready to attack him, only it was impaled on the Deathscythe's beam scythe. Adrian quickly flung the Astray to the side where it detonated in mid air before opening a com with Mathias. "I don't know what you are doing, but you should focus on the battle." Mathias growled and turned, launching towards the incoming Astray X Gold. "Like I need you to tell me that!" he yelled, opening the missile pods on the Heavyarms' shoulder pads, firing all of them at the Astray. Gary stopped and tried to dodge, but the missiles were too close, and the Astray X Gold was consumed by the explosion.

"Battle ended." As one, the six fighters reached out to grab their gunpla, now falling due to the lack of Plavsky particles. Rose noticed that Mathias grabbed his with a bit more force than normal, and couldn't resist taunting him. "What, you mad that I'm actually pretty skilled?" Mathias turned a glare filled with hate at her, and Rose flinched. "No, I am mad because you turned a Gundam into a **fucking** _ballet_ _dancer_! Seriously, what the **hell** made you think that was a good idea?! I thought I was gonna be sick at the sheer ridiculousness!" Before Rose could respond, a nearby tv started blaring news on a recent gunpla tournament. The footage showed the end result of the final match, a gunpla designed as a mix between the Transient Gundam and the Wing Gundam Zero EW Custom, painted pure white with the joints, lining, and eyes a pure gold, its four wings expanded, particles extending those wings further as it impaled the enemy, a ZZ Gundam, with its spear. The news then cut to a reporter with the gunpla's pilot. "Hello everybody, I am Sam Levice, and with me is Roderick Brown, designer and pilot of the Longinus Gundam, otherwise known as the 'Angel of Death'. For those of you tuning in, Mr. Brown has never once lost a battle since debuting on the competitive circuit with the Longinus Gundam. Mr. Brown, tell me, what inspired you to design the Longinus?" Roderick rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and said "What else can I say except divine inspiration. I was in my workshop one day and the idea just came to me. I spent five days building it, and it hasn't failed me since." The reporter turned back to the camera and said "Truly inspiring. Let's watch that last match again." The footage returned to the recorded battle, and Rose noticed a slight tightening in Adrian's fist. "Hey Adrian, do you have a problem with that guy?" Adrian twitched and the tension disappeared, before he pushed his glasses up. "Roderick isn't using the Longinus Gundam's full potential." Mathias snorted at his statement. "I agree, his movements are absolutely wasteful. He could have ended the battle much earlier if he wasn't such a showman." Adrian twitched at the comment before walking off to alter the coding in his GP Base. Mathias looked at Adrian before he walked away himself, scowling at his gunpla. "We will take a break for an hour. Be back here for the next fight or else." With that he left the room, muttering to himself. Rose looked between the two of them before heading off to the nearby vending machines to grab a snack and drink.

* * *

The three pilots regrouped after an hour, Mathias still scowling at his gunpla. After about a minute, he looked up and addressed Rose and Adrian. "Alright, somehow we have managed to win these past two battles, and I am honestly surprised that I didn't have to do all the work. Guess you guys were a bit better than I thought." Rose preened a bit at the compliment before Mathias continued speaking. "Granted, I thought you two were complete fucking amateurs, so it isn't that hard to be better than I thought." Mathias ignored Rose's indignant shout. "Regardless, we have one last fight I have arranged today, and this one should be our biggest challenge yet. Well, biggest challenge for you guys." Mathias paused as a group of three, one guy and two girls came up. One girl, a short-haired redhead in a tank top and jeans said "Well well well, if it isn't the major general, I was honestly surprised you actually called me up for a team training exercise. I was honestly hoping you were calling for some…other exercise." The other girl, a long-haired brunette in a t-shirt and skirt giggled while the single male in the group blushed slightly. Rose sputtered indignantly at the redhead's blatant flirting while Adrian merely huffed and pushed his glasses up, though if one looked carefully, they could see a slight blush on his face. Mathias however merely deepened his scowl and said "You know I am never gonna take your offers Alice, so just give up." Alice simply laughed and responded "Oh come on major general, you can't blame a girl for trying." Alice then threw up a cute little salute and said "Major Collins reporting for duty! With me are privates Joy and Horn! Shall we get this match underway?"

Mathias nodded and the six moved to the nearby battle system. "Gunpla Battle combat mode, startup. Model damage level, set to B. Please set your GP Base." The six set their GP bases as the machine created a new field of battle for this match. "Beginning Plavsky particle dispersal. Field 12, Island." An island appeared in the center of the field, a forest covering the large island with a mountain range on the northern side, a large bay contained on the eastern side turning the island to a thick crescent. "Please set your gunpla." Mathias, Adrian, and Rose set their gunpla, while the enemy team set theirs. Alice set down a Gyan with a miniature version of the Nobel Gundam's pink bow on the chest and a red ponytail. Private Joy unveiled a Char Custom Z'Gok, also outfitted with the miniature Nobel Gundam's pink bow mounted on its chest. Finally, private Horn sheepishly pulled out a RX-78-2 Gundam, the miniature Nobel Gundam's pink bow attached to the backpack in a futile attempt to hide it. Rose snickered at the girly accessory attached to Horn's gunpla, and even Mathias managed to stop scowling long enough to crack a smile. This time Mathias did not scoff at the basic design, as he was already familiar with how tough Alice's gunpla could be, and was prepared to expect the same from the other two. "Battle start." "Rose Fayre, Burning Gundam Beta, let's fight!" "Mathias Winns, Heavyarms Kai Desert Recon, ready to sortie!" "Adrian Brown, Deathscythe EW Variant, launching." "Major Collins, Nobel Gyan, let's make this fight beautiful!" "Private Joy, Nobel Z'Gok, let's have some fun!" "Private Horn, Gundam Nobel, let's go!"

* * *

Mathias, Adrian, and Rose all landed on the sandy shores of the bay before Rose opened a com with Mathias. "Alright jackass, this time I ain't leaving things to chance. What are these guys capable of?" Before Mathias answered, Adrian joined the shared com. "I concur. If we are to succeed with minimal loss, we should use every advantage." Mathias cockily said "Well, I'm glad you guys are finally looking to me in this 'team effort'." "Oh please, like I would ever do so. I just want to know what our enemy can do instead of learning the hard way." Rose shot back. "Whatever helps you sleep at night. These guys are good. They mostly use straight builds, but not normal straight builds. No, they design their gunplas like a _fucking_ _real_ _grade_. They are infinitely better than the average store-bought set. They also have a variety of hidden features built in, from traps and tricks to combat systems from other series, both in and out of the Gundam universe. That is about all I can say as Alice changes them Weekly, and I haven't seen what she put in this week. She is the main designer though, so generally whatever gimmicks one has will most likely be in the other two. Also, this is their stage, and Alice loves to act. I expect we will have to climb that mountain with individual fights like a dungeon crawl. Also, Alice can be a bit sadistic, so be careful about that." "Wait, that cheery little flirt has a sadistic streak?" Mathias nodded at Rose's question. "Huh, wouldn't have pegged her like that." "Regardless, it wouldn't do to waste time." Adrian said, pushing his glasses up and launching his Deathscythe EW Variant towards the mountain. Rose smirked and said "Now you are speaking my language!" before launching off herself to follow. Mathias shut the com between the three and launched into the air behind the Deathscythe and Burning Gundam Beta.

The three landed at the base of the mountain, but before they could start flying up to the top, a beam shot impacted the ground in front of them. The three looked up to see the Gundam Nobel, which leapt down to stand in front of them. "Sorry 'bout that, but boss wants this to be interesting. One of you needs to stay here, the other two get to head up. Private Joy will be waiting for you halfway up." The Gundam Nobel then shouldered its beam rifle. "So, who will be my opponent?" The Burning Gundam Beta stepped forward and slammed it's right fist into its left palm. The Gundam Nobel nodded before stepping to the side. The Deathscythe and Heavyarms Kai flew past and darted up the mountain, leaving the Gundam Nobel and Burning Gundam Beta behind. The Gundam Nobel turned back to the Burning Gundam Beta and opened a com. "The names Jeffrey, Jeffrey Horn." Rose smirked and said "Rose Fayre.

Mathias and Adrian continued up the mountain, passing a cave opening. Suddenly, a red three-clawed arm launched out on a cord and caught the Deathscythe by the leg. Adrian had only a moment to notice being caught before the arm retracted, pulling the Deathscythe with it. Mathias paused to look at the vanishing Deathscythe before continuing up to the mountaintop. The Deathscythe continued its impromptu journey through the cave system until the arm released it. Adrian quickly positioned the Deathscythe to land on its feet, idly noticing he was in an underground cavern with a lake, which the arm just splashed into. Moments after the Nobel Z'Gok leapt out of the water and landed on the rocky shores, staring at the Deathscythe with its glowing monoeye. Suddenly, a com channel opened on Adrian's system. "Oh poo, I was hoping to catch Mathias. Ah well, at least I caught _some_ eye-candy." Adrian pushed his glasses up, covering his eyes in the shine. "So, it appears I am to be your opponent." Private Joy perked up and cheerily said "Yep! The names Erina Joy! Can't wait to get started!"

Suddenly the com between the two closed, and the Nobel Z'Gok darted forward, its right arm claws closing together in order to impale the Deathscythe EW Variant. The Deathscythe turned and batted away the arm with its scythe handle before swinging down to literally disarm the mobile suit before it. Immediately a panel opened on the forearm, and an energy shield appeared to stop the beam blade from hitting. The two immediately disengaged from the short melee and faced each other again. "Hmph, naughty naughty. Don't you know how to treat a girl?" "You are the enemy. I won't hold back against you just because of gender." Erina opened a com with Adrian so he could see her pouting. "Mou, and I thought chivalry might still live." Adrian stared at her and calmly replied "You do know that chivalry was meant as a code of knightly conduct more so than how to treat women." Erina frowned and said "You're no fun." This time the Nobel Z'Gok raised its arms to fire a volley of beam shots. The Deathscythe merely folded its left wing over as a shield, and the energy shots dispersed against what looked like ripples of energy on impact. "Oh, now _that_ was interesting. Looks like I'm not the only one with tricks up their sleeves." The Deathscythe then closed its right wing and vanished from sight. "It would be wise not to underestimate me." The Nobel Z'Gok's monoeye darted left and right before turning, its energy shield covered right arm rising to block the reappearing Deathscythe's attack. Caught off guard, Adrian leapt back and drew his gundam's beam pistols, firing at both the mobile suit before him and the rocks to create a dust cloud. He cloaked again and darted to the right. Erina laughed at the ploy and said "Cloaking won't help you, my Z'Gok is built with thermal vision." She turned and jabbed her open left arm at the Deathscythe, wrapping around its right arm with shield raised. "Gotcha." The clawed hand closed, trapping the Deathscythe's arm and crushing its shield. She raised the Z'Gok's other arm to fire point blank, but then noticed something. The Deathscythe was missing its left arm-mounted shield! The moment her brain processed this fact, the shield reappeared, launching from the dust cloud with its thrusters, it's now exposed beam blade cutting the off-guard Z'Gok's left arm off, freeing the Deathscythe to evade the instinctive beam shot from Erina. Adrian quickly jumped back, jabbed his beam scythe's handle into the ground and tore the Z'Gok's arm off of his gundam's own arm, also pulling off the now useless shield. He then caught the returning shield and reattached it to his Deathscythe's left arm before hefting its beam scythe out of the ground with both hands. Erina grinned at this and said "Hmm, maybe this fight will be more fun than I thought."

* * *

Mathias reached the mountaintop to find a small plateau in the middle of some rocks. Sitting on top of the rock furthest from him was the Nobel Gyan. "Well, I didn't expect you to get here so soon." "What, did you expect me to take the scenic route?" Mathias bantered back. The Nobel Gyan stood back up and dropped to the plateau's surface, and was joined by the Heavyarms Kai DR. "No, that's not you at all Mathias, but I had hoped you would have at least waited for your teammates." The Nobel Gyan then activated its beam saber and jabbed it into the ground. "Regardless, we won't fight just yet. I want an audience, so let's wait for our teammates to finish up and join us." The Heavyarms shifted its dual gatlings to its hands. "And if I chose to just start now?" Mathias asked, a cocky grin stretching across his face. This grin was mirrored by Alice as she pulled her beam saber from the ground and raised it in a fencing pose. "Then I can't really stop you now, can I?" The Nobel Gyan lunged forward towards the Heavyarms, which started firing bullets at the approaching mobile suit.

The Gundam Nobel and Burning Gundam Beta stood facing each other at the base of the mountain. "So, I have to ask, why the bow?" Horn rubbed the back of his head sheepishly at Rose's question and said "Ask Alice. She built our gunpla. Honestly I'm just thankful I got her to at least put it on the back rather than the front like she wanted." Rose sweatdropped and responded "Yeah, I agree. It is a little…much." Horn also sweatdropped and nodded. "Anyway, let's get started." The Gundam Nobel raised its forearm holding the beam rifle to block a sudden punch from the Burning Gundam Beta. "I agree!" was all Rose said as she unleashed a salvo of punches, hooks, and uppercuts at the Gundam Nobel, her opponent blocking the attacks with some difficulty. Finally the Gundam Nobel saw a chance opening in the Burning Gundam Beta's defense and launched a left straight, hitting its chest and pushing it back. In the short pause after his counter Jeffrey stored his beam rifle on his backpack and commented "You're good. Boxing?" Rose grinned. "Sort of. You're no slouch either. Counter-puncher, right **(3)**?" Jeffrey nodded at Rose's observation. "Five-time champ of the local minor circuit before dropping out for gunpla." "Impressive. But let's see if you still have the skills to handle a more unorthodox style." The Burning Gundam Beta leapt into a flying kick, and when the Gundam Nobel went to block with its right arm, fired its thrusters to switch into a spinning kick at the Gundam Nobel's unprotected left side. The Gundam Nobel was launched through a few trees before being stopped by a rock, its beam rifle knocked to the ground nearby. The Burning Gundam Beta landed in front of the Gundam Nobel, arms raised to use its machine guns when Jeffrey smirked. The Gundam Nobel raised its left arm at Rose's gundam, and the forearm was suddenly launched on a wire, launching the Burning Gundam Beta back towards the mountain. Rose's Gundam hit the rock wall as the arm retracted back to the Gundam Nobel. Rose's console let off a warning, and Rose threw her Gundam to the side to dodge a sudden beam shot. Five more beam shots came out of the forest and Rose dodged and weaved before her gundam got body checked by the Gundam Nobel, it tossing aside its beam rifle while the Burning Gundam Beta was sent flying back. The Burning Gundam Beta slammed into the mountain a second time, and the Gundam Nobel held Rose's Gundam against the rock and sent a series of short, heavy punches at its abdomen. Rose grunted as the armor dented before she grabbed the Gundam Nobel by its shoulder armor and pulled it into a headbutt, firing the head vulcans on impact. The Gundam Nobel let go and staggered back, it's head a pile of smoking scrap metal, while the Burning Gundam Beta had broken off its V-fin in its attack. Rose raised her forearm machine guns and unloaded the entire magazines into the Gundam Nobel. As her machine guns clicked empty, the Gundam Nobel stood wobbling, smoke pouring from the numerous holes on it before it toppled over, out of commission. Rose yanked her gundam out of the slight indent she made in the mountain and stared at the wreckage before her. "That was the best battle I've had so far. Let's do this again someday." She then swapped the magazines in her gundam's forearms with the backups on the back skirt armor before turning around and begin flying up towards the mountaintop.

* * *

The Nobel Z'Gok was now forced to go on the defensive, having lost its left arm. Adrian charged forward, not giving Erina time to plan, a quick series of swipes with his scythe narrowly blocked by the Z'Gok's energy shield. In a desperate act,the Nobel Z'Gok launched its right arm, catching the handle of Adrian's beam scythe. Adrian ignored this and pulled his scythe back, igniting the beam blade in his shield and severing the cord keeping the arm attached to Erina's mobile suit, tossing his now inoperable beam scythe and the Nobel Z'Gok's clawed hand. The Nobel Z'Gok kneeled and fired the missiles in its head unit. The Deathscythe closed its bat wings and the missiles exploded on contact. The Nobel Z'Gok stood back up and stared at the cloud before leaping back again. Unfortunately it was too slow, as the Deathscythe's right hand darted forward and grabbed the mobile suit, it's fingers digging into the armor. The shield's beam blade darted forward and impaled the Nobel Z'Gok through its monoeye. Adrian then tossed the wrecked mobile suit into the lake with a splash before winding through the cave system and back out to open air.

The Deathscythe EW Variant exited the cave, only to see the Burning Gundam Beta fly past. Adrian pushed his gundam's thrusters to pull next to Rose, and the two shared a nod through their coms before going full throttle to reach the mountaintop. The two reached the mountaintop and looked down to see the Heavyarms Kai DR and Nobel Gyan clashing, the Heavyarms' dual gatlings severed from the backpack and lying to one side. The Nobel Gyan was rapidly stabbing at the Heavyarms with its beam saber. The Heavyarms dodged where it could, arms up in a defensive position with the heat knives extended, but Rose and Adrian could easily spot the slight scrapes and gouges along the Heavyarms' body, evidence where it hadn't dodged in time. Strangely, both noticed there were no marks on or near the head, despite it being an excellent target to cripple. Finally the Heavyarms ducked under a stab and went for a sweep kick, the heat knife on its right leg extending. The Nobel Gyan jumped and stabbed downwards, running through the Heavyarms' leg. Mathias merely backhanded with his gundam's right arm, the heat knife forcing the Nobel Gyan to leap back or suffer a stab wound on its own arm. Erina looked to the side as Mathias struggled to make his gundam stand and spotted the Deathscythe EW Variant and Burning Gundam Beta. "Well, Mathias, looks like we have our audience. A shame it's all your team, but they won't be much trouble." Erina turned back to see the Heavyarms still struggling to stand, the leg Erina had stabbed refusing to hold any weight and put on a look of false concern. "Look at you, you're like a wounded dog. Here, let me put you down." The right forearm of the Nobel Gyan launched out on a wire, the beam saber in its hand angled to stab right through the Heavyarms' chest. Suddenly, a remote controlled shield flew in the path of the Nobel Gyan's arm, getting run through by the beam saber in order to redirect it away from the Heavyarms. The Burning Gundam Beta then leapt down and knocked the off-guard Nobel Gyan into the rocks surrounding the plateau with a right haymaker while the Deathscythe, bereft of both shields and beam scythe, dropped down to lift the Heavyarms onto its feet. Mathias was absolutely stunned by the acts of his teammates. "What the- Why did you do that?!" Rose merely huffed and answered "You may be a complete ass, but…you are still our teammate, and that means we need to help each other." Adrian merely nodded at Rose's declaration. Mathias turned red and yelled "I didn't need your help! I was doing perfectly-" "Shut up!" Mathias was stunned when Rose cut him off. "You are **literally** on your last leg. **Enough** of all this lone wolf **bullshit**! Adrian, get him out of here." Mathias was so stunned by Rose's rebuttal that he didn't even struggle as Adrian carried his Gundam out of the plateau. The Nobel Gyan retracted its arm and removed the shield on its beam saber before looking at the fleeing Deathscythe and Heavyarms. Erina aimed the beam saber at the Deathscythe's back. "Now now, I won't let you take away my little toy." Suddenly the Burning Gundam Beta filled Erina's view screen, and she quickly backstepped to evade its beam saber swinging to bisect her mobile suit. "If you want to fight them, you go through me." Rose said, drawing the second beam saber and combining them into a double-bladed beam saber much like the Strike Freedom Gundam's. Erina's face broke out into a cruel grin. "Fine then, I'll take you up on that offer!" She lunged forward to stab the Burning Gundam Beta, but it quickly twirled its double beam saber and deflected the attack upwards before diving into an onslaught of sweeping strikes. The Nobel Gyan tried to block, but the attacks were coming too quickly in too many directions. Eventually the Nobel Gyan fell to the Burning Gundam Beta in pieces and Rose split her beam sabers and returned them to their holsters. "Battle ended."

* * *

The battle system shutdown, and Mathias stared at his now lifeless gunpla, which was still being supported by the equally inanimate Deathscythe, his mind stuck in a loop on the events that ended the battle. He wasn't brought out of his thoughts until he heard a voice that sparked anger in him. "Well, look who finally caved to the times, the mighty 'major general'. What made you finally wuss out Matt?" "What do you want Alan?" Mathias growled as he turned to see the speaker. Before him was Alan Hawk, a 19-year old with tousled red hair and amethyst-colored eyes. He was wearing a gray wife beater and black pants atop a pair of sandals. Alan smirked and said "Why, I heard the lone fighter Mathias Winns had finally started fighting in a team and wanted to know what brought on such a change." Alan then peered around Mathias's shoulder and saw the Heavyarms Kai DR held up by the Deathscythe EW Variant and let out a fake gasp. "Wait, you're still using your sissy's gunpla?! Jesus, and here I thought you finally toughened up. When are you going to move on and actually get _better_?" Mathias dug his fingers into his palms. "Shut up." Alan leaned in and commented "Oh, did I touch a nerve? Does the big weakling not like it when people talk about dear old sissy? I thought you couldn't let her go? Or was that all a big old act to cover up just how much you don't _care_!" Alan was then sent to the floor by Mathias punching him in the nose. "I said, **shut up**!" Mathias moved to leap on the downed Alan, but Dolohov seemed to just appear behind him and trapped Mathias in a full nelson. Mathias struggled to get out, spit flying from his mouth. "Let me go Dolohov! I'm going to kill him! I'm going to fucking _cave in his skull_!" Dolohov struggled to hold Mathias until he got the chance to hook his hands together behind Mathias's head. "Calm yourself major general! You aren't thinking straight!" "Oh, I'm thinking straight! I'm thinking about how my fist will feel buried in his face!" Alan rubbed a trickle of blood from his nose and said "Well, it seems the little puppy still has some bite. Too bad your little _handlers_ were around to restrain you." Dolohov scowled at the veiled insult to himself and sternly said "I would suggest you stop talking before I feel inclined to let the major general go. If you are that determined for a fight, let us settle things like civilized people. In a gunpla battle." Mathias finally managed to calm down after tiring himself out from trying to escape Dolohov's iron grip and, in a controlled tone, said "Dolohov's right. As much as I would love to see you bleeding on the floor, let's fight with our gunpla."Alan frowned slightly at Mathias's restraint. "You _have_ gone soft Mathias. Fine, it will be nice to finally put you in your place. Standard rules?" Rose and Adrian, who so far were just astonished spectators of the disaster unfolding before them, saw a sudden glint of fear in Mathias's eyes before he settled back to a scowl and nodded.

The two stood at a single battle system in the back, Mathias holding his quickly repaired Heavyarms tightly, while Alan stood arrogantly, a F-91 Gundam in his hands, or that at least was what Rose and Adrian assumed it was, as the gunpla also had a cloak on, covering everything but the head. Rose turned to Dolohov and asked "Who is that? I didn't think I would find someone more of an asshole than Mathias." Dolohov scowled and said "That's Alan Hawk, a former classmate of Mathias. The two are both gunpla fans, but the two have very different opinions on the treatment of gunplas. Mathias believes that one's gunpla is special, and that it must be cared for no matter what. Alan thinks they are just a tool, a means to an end, and should be used and tossed aside when needed." "But that's just not right!" Rose exclaimed. "That is just how he is." was Dolohov's curt response. "Gunpla Battle combat mode, startup. Model damage level, set to A. Please set your GP Base." Rose started at the system's setting. "Wait, their fighting on level _A_!?" Dolohov nodded solemnly. "Yes, I wasn't a member of the AUF at the time, but I hear they regularly used to clash their ideals by having battles set to level A. From what I heard, they never managed to beat each other, and the fights always ended in mutual destruction." Adrian was shocked at this fact, but then focused on something else. "Mathias reacted strongly to Alan's taunts about 'sissy'. Who was he referring to?" Dolohov merely turned and walked away, not wishing to see what he could feel would be a violent battle. "It is not my place to say. If you wish to know, I would suggest asking either a veteran member or the general and lieutenant general." Rose and Adrian turned back to see the battlefield having already formed, an Arctic tundra. "Field 13, Tundra. Please set your gunpla." Mathias and Alan set their gunplas on the machine, and the battle began. "Mathias Winns, Heavyarms Kai Desert Recon, ready to sortie!" "Hmph, Alan Hawk, Fullbody Gundam, I'm taking this win!"

The Heavyarms and Fullbody landed a distance from each other. "I hope your ready to finally _lose_ Mathias." Mathias growled and yelled "Like **hell** I will! I'm going to make you **pay** for what you said!" The Heavyarms charged forward, right arm cocked back to hit the Fullbody Gundam, heat knife extended. Right at the moment of contact, the Heavyarms was knocked back, a dent in its chest plate. The Fullbody Gundam had not moved, though the front of its cloak fluttered close, as if something had darted out and back in again. "That was pathetic! Here, let me show you a _real_ attack!" The Fullbody launched forward, its right arm poking out of the cloak with a beam saber in hand, aimed right for the Heavyarms' head. "No!" Mathias spun his gundam to the side, narrowly dodging the beam saber but lost his backpack and dual gatlings. The Heavyarms reoriented itself as Alan rammed the beam saber into the backpack, flying up into the air as it exploded. "I'm going to show you just how pathetic you are holding onto that useless sentimentality!" A second beam saber flew out from under the cloak, again aimed at the Heavyarms' head. Mathias jumped back to evade, only for the Fullbody Gundam to appear in front of him, beam saber now in hand and slicing off his gundam's left arm. Mathias swung with his right heat knife again, and this time the cloak fluttered off as the Fullbody grabbed the Heavyarms' forearm. Now that Rose and Adrian could see, the Fullbody Gundam was definitely based on the F-91, but was designed much more differently. Miniature thrusters were built all along the gundam at each joint, presumably to increase agility and speed, and short spikes covered the armor of the gundam, making every motion a potential attack. The Fullbody crushed the forearm of Mathias's gundam and tore it off before kicking the Heavyarms away and sliced the detached left arm into pieces. The Heavyarms limped backwards, it's only remaining weapons being the missile pods in its right shoulder armor and outer thighs, the head vulcans, and the two leg-mounted heat knives. Mathias could have used the twin gatlings in the Heavyarms' chest, but the Fullbody Gundam's first strike had crushed the armor plating's opening mechanism, preventing them from being used. Alan merely stared at Mathias through the video screen, seeing him panic from the events of the battle. "Look at you. We used to have the most glorious battles, our gunpla tearing themselves apart so we could prove ourselves, but now? Now you can't even stand a fighting chance against me. All because you are too weak to let go. See what your sentiment has done to you. And watch as I **destroy** **your gunpla**!" The Fullbody flung its current beam saber as well as a second one into the Heavyarms' knee joints, forcing it to fall to the ground. Alan walked up to the helpless Heavyarms and sat on top of it, pulling a third beam saber from a hidden holster in his gundam's backpack. All the while Mathias looked in fear, repeatedly muttering denials of what's happening. Rose finally couldn't bear this one-sided slaughter of a match and yelled "Stop it! You've already won!" Alan just grinned evilly as the Fullbody reached its hand towards the Heavyarms' head. "Not yet, not until I break his spirit." Mathias jolted at this, and vainly started firing his head vulcans. The Fullbody was completely unphased, its armor more than enough to stop the weak bullets, and finally grabbed the face of Mathias's gundam. The Fullbody then crushed the head with agonizing slowness, Alan smiling as Mathias let out a pain-filled "NOOOOOOOO!" Finally, with the head crushed, Alan rammed his beam saber into the Heavyarms' chest, removing it in a violent motion and darting away as the Heavyarms exploded. With a soft thump, the crushed head of the Heavyarms landed in front of Mathias. With a finality that Rose and Adrian felt was horribly timed, the battle system announced "Battle ended."

* * *

Mathias collapsed to his knees as the console controls disappeared, staring at the literal wreckage that made up his gunpla. There were no parts that could have been reused or repaired due to the Fullbody's actions, and the head simply sat there, the crushed faceplate facing Mathias. Alan merely grabbed his completely undamaged gunpla and reattached the cloak before walking off. "Remember this Mathias. Maybe now you'll actually agree that I'm right. If not, well, I doubt you'll ever fight again, having let down your sister like that." Rose and Adrian looked at each other. Neither had known Mathias had a sister. Rose approached Mathias, still on his knees with his head hanging down. "Mathias?" Rose moved to place her hand on his shoulder, but Mathias slapped it away and ran out of the building. Rose moved to chase after him, but a hand on her shoulder brought her short. Rose turned to see an albino man towering behind her. He was in his late forties, she would guess, and had short, spiky white hair. He was dressed in a gray shirt and jeans with combat boots, a camo jacket displaying medals and military ranks tied by the sleeves around his neck like a cape. An empty gun holster hung from his belt. He had pale red eyes that stared at Rose and Adrian softly, but the both of them noticed a hardness at the edge of his eyes. The two immediately registered that this man is, or more likely was, a soldier. Next to the man was a woman dressed in a cream colored shirt and a beige long skirt. She seemed younger than the man, but her face was marred with lines from concern and worry, making her look older. Rose however noticed some laugh lines buried underneath, and figured this woman was once much more cheerful. She was a head shorter than the man, and her long black hair accented her petite figure. Soft green eyes looked at the two, and Rose felt a pang in her heart. She grew up tough due to a hard life, and her parents were really not the best role models when it came to love and affection, but this woman before her made Rose's heart ache in a way she hadn't felt in a long time, not since she ran off. Rose just wanted to wrap the lady in a hug and never let go. The man sighed, and Rose's attention was pulled back to him. "I think we should talk a bit. I have a feeling my son needs some time alone."

Mathias had kept running after exiting his parent's arcade, and didn't stop until he reached a familiar place to him. He stood in the local cemetery, a gravestone before him. On the gravestone was written 'ARIEL WINNS 1994 - 2014'. Mathias stared at the grave before collapsing in front of it, tears in his eyes. "I'm so sorry sis. I failed."

* * *

 **And that's that! Chapter 2 of The Shining Jewels of America. Yes, Alan is a complete and total ass. You know how they say something is 'turned/taken up to eleven' to mean it's emphasized or exaggerated more than normal? Well Alan took being an ass and turned it up to** _ **20**_ **. If chairman Mashita knew about him, he would snap him up in a heartbeat, because he is everything Mashita wants in a battler without needing the Embody System to be it. Lack of emotional connection to gunpla? Check. Completely devoid of mercy? Check. Willingness to use psychological tactics and dirty tricks to win at any cost? Oh ho ho, double check. On an unrelated note, I feel I should say this now. In the dialog, I sometimes bold or italicize words. Italics mean the word or words are more emphasized than the rest of the sentence, while bold means they are said louder than the rest of the sentence. Hope that clears things up.**

 **For the sake of simplification and to keep myself organized I'm posting up the timeline of my story. Note that this is not official in any way, as the series never gives concrete dates, so any times tied to the official series I built off of guesswork and estimates.**

 **My GBF timeline so far**

 **1980s-start of Gundam series**

 **1994-Ariel is born**

 **2001-Adrian and Rose are born**

 **2002-Mathias is born**

 **2003-development of gunpla battle by PPSE**

 **2014-Gundam Build Fighters, Ariel dies at 7th world tournament age 20, Mathias age 12, Adrian and Rose age 13**

 **2021-Gundam Build Fighters Try, current time of my story, Mathias age 19, Adrian and Rose age 20**

 **Note that this is not the final form of my timeline (hehe). I will repost this in later endnotes, revised and updated whenever new info appears. With that done, onto the marked references.**

 **(1) I based this off of the official ranking system of the American military, in so far as I could find with Google. Mathias and his parents hold the top three positions, and his dad's full rank would be general of the army. However, the rank isn't always indicative to the person's skill. Everyone that joins starts as a private. After a year of 'service' they may join the annual AUF tournament. In this tournament, the top five get the option to go up one rank, while the winner gets the choice to go up two. However, they are allowed to refuse the promotion. Dolohov actually would have a higher rank, but he chooses to keep the rank he has. Humble, ain't he? Also, the titles are given by rank and then last name. Dolohov's full name is Patrick Dolohov, but I have him just called Dolohov to highlight his Russian ancestry and mark him as a recurring character. This will apply to all other recurring members of the AUF. I will only give their rank on their first appearance unless a situation requires it later on.**

 **(2) I will be using the official names for equipment and gundams whenever needed. This should only pop up when the gunpla has weapons or features that it wouldn't normally have, or if it has multiple weapons of the same type and I want to specify which one. Should I not do this, assume they only have the equipment the original gunpla or gunplas would have out of the box, or I'm keeping it a secret to reveal during the fight, like in the team Nobel match.**

 **(3) Yes, I used actual boxing terms. A counter-puncher like Jeffrey is exactly what it says on the tin, a boxer who waits for openings and mistakes in their opponent and counter. Rose, if she did official boxing matches, would be a swarmer, a person who forgoes defense for an unrelenting offense, aiming to K.O. their opponent as soon as possible. Truthfully, Jeffrey pegged her wrong. Rose actually practices kickboxing, and she doesn't do official matches. She'll use any trick she can to win, but, that's how she grew up. I'll dive into that later. Gotta keep something in reserve for you guys :P.**

 **Now, the gunpla in this chapter. The only gunplas I can confirm are realistically buildable using HG sets are the Longinus** **Gundam and the three Astray Xs. I have both the version that appears in this chapter as well as the second version Mathias mentions they also use at times.**

 **Lastly, I am still open for OC submissions of gunpla and gunpla pilots. The only rule is pilots must either be from America, or have a reason to be competing in America (ex. foreign exchange). See you guys in the next chapter! JA NE!**

 **P.S. I actually forgot about this. In the first chapter I referred to the in-match communication as 'video feed', while in this chapter I exclusively used the term 'com'. For the sake of clarification, I will only be using com to describe the in-match system, but it features both audio and video unless stated otherwise. Feels nice to clear that up. Anyway, that's all I have to say. JA NE!**


	3. History Revealed, A Warrior's Rebirth!

**Here we are in the next chapter of The Shining Jewels of America! This chapter is gonna be a big info dump on Mathias and his family, so get ready to take notes, cause this is gonna be on the quiz! Just kidding! ;) regardless, I hope you enjoy, I put a lot of thought into this chapter. Let's dive right in!**

* * *

The man and woman, Mathias's parents, led Adrian and Rose to an out-of-the-way staircase and to the second floor of the arcade. The group of four stepped into a living/dining room combo with an open kitchen connected. Four doors laid along the walls, one by the stairway, two on the opposite wall, and one opposite the two doors. The living room had a low coffee table surrounded by two armchairs, a sofa, and a widescreen tv. The man gestured for Rose and Adrian to sit in the two armchairs while the woman headed to the kitchen to grab snacks and refreshments. The man then sat down in the sofa and accept the Mug's Root Beer his wife passed to him before she set down a tray of various chip bags and sodas and sat next to him with a glass of water. Adrian and Rose looked at each other before grabbing a drink, Rose having a Pepsi while Adrian grabbed a Fanta. Once everybody had a drink, the man leaned forward. "Now then, I believe I should introduce myself. I am Michael Winns, former sergeant and now arcade owner, and this is my wife Hannah. And you two are?" "Rose Fayre." "Adrian Brown." The man leaned back and took a sip of his drink. "Well then, Miss Fayre, Mr. Brown, I take it you have questions?" Adrian nodded and said "Mathias seemed extremely distraught at the destruction of his gunpla, especially the head, and Alan Hawk kept referring to Mathias's sister, but we never knew he had a sister, so I assume he wasn't in close contact with her. So why did he react so badly to those two things?" Michael sighed and took another sip. "Now that, Mr. Brown, is where you are mistaken. Mathias loved Ariel. Loved her as much as a sibling could." Michael smiled as if seeing a memory. "You know, my son wasn't always how he is. When he was a kid, he was the most cheerful boy you could meet. He loved gunpla, and so did his sister. In fact, they were the greatest tag team in the state." "Wait, Mathias worked _along_ with someone?" Mathias's parents frowned at Rose's question, but they let their annoyance go. After all, she never knew Mathias back then. "Yes, he and his sister were unbeatable. They called themselves the 'Blizzard Twins', on account that they piloted a Heavyarms and Sandrock painted in arctic camo." "Huh, so Mathias used the Heavyarms back then too?" Michael laughed. "Ha! No Miss Rose, the Heavyarms was Ariel's." Adrian frowned. "If Mathias piloted a Sandrock, which is a close-range gundam, why did he switch to the primarily long-range Heavyarms?" It was now that Hannah spoke up. "It's because of what happened to Ariel." Rose frowned, again feeling that twinge in her heart from Hannah's look of sorrow. "What happened Mrs. Winns?" Tears started to fill Hannah's eyes as she choked out her answer. "She died." Michael patted his wife on the back and rubbed soothing circles between her shoulder blades. "There there honey, it's okay." Rose and Adrian sat awkwardly for a minute as Michael calmed his wife down before she got up to refill her glass of water. As she left Michael turned back to the two. "You have to understand my wife was heartbroken when Ariel died. It was during the final match of the 7th Annual Gunpla Championship, and I'm sure the two of you remember what happened." Rose and Adrian shuddered, remembering the chaos that occurred that day on TV. "Well, we were there. My son had begged and pleaded, and eventually we agreed to pay for a trip to see the final match. Mathias was devastated by that battle, to see gunpla used so horribly, and then it happened. Those weird crystals started appearing all over the place. Now, I'm military, and the moment things went bad I ushered my family to the nearest exit. Unfortunately, Mathias got his foot stuck in one of those crystal growths, and we couldn't get to him through the crowd. Ariel, bless her, she ducked and weaved and got to him. She pulled him free and tossed him over to me when another of those crystals grew, right through her stomach." Rose choked back a gasp while Adrian narrowed his eyes.

"And I take it Mathias saw it?" Michael nodded grimly. "He did. It broke him, broke him worse than it did Hannah. He shut himself in, refused to interact with anyone outside of family, except in gunpla. He kept battling with a grim focus, and he took his sister's gunpla. He started to learn how it worked, and he started winning matches like he used to with Ariel. Years later he finally started to open up again, even got a girlfriend." "And then what?" Rose asked. Michael frowned and finished his drink. "And then he had a date that ended up causing him to miss our annual visit to Ariel's grave. We thought it was a sign that he had finally moved on, but it was the exact opposite. We got a call from his girlfriend that he dumped her and vanished. We finally found him a day later at Ariel's grave, mumbling 'I'm sorry' over and over. After that he became what he is now. When we confronted him why, he told us that he shut himself because he felt no one could fill the gap Ariel left, and now he would make sure no one even tried." A clatter was heard and the three turned to see Hannah had dropped her glass, sobbing into her hands. "I ju-just want my b-baby boy b-back." Michael rushed over and resumed consoling his wife while Adrian rubbed his chin. "Well, that explains why Mathias reacted to Alan's taunts the way he did, but it doesn't explain his reaction to the destruction of his gunpla, especially the head." Michael frowned at the statement. "He probably told you that his Heavyarms was completely custom made, right?" At their nods his frown deepened. "He lied. The head was actually from his sister's original Heavyarms, repainted to match the rest of it. He felt so long as he had a piece of Ariel's gunpla with him, she would never be gone." Rose's hands flew to her mouth in shock. "So when Alan crushed the Heavyarms' head-" "He destroyed Mathias's link with Ariel." Adrian finished grimly. Michael nodded. "Exactly. If I were a betting man, I'd say Mathias is at her grave right now apologizing." Michael looked at his still sobbing wife and turned to Rose and Adrian. "Could the two of you do me a favor?" Adrian nodded while Rose said "Of course." Michael moved his wife to one of the two adjacent doors and opened it to reveal a bedroom before looking back. "Help Mathias. I don't care how you do it. I just want my son back to normal." With his favor asked Michael shut the door, leaving Rose and Adrian to look at each other.

* * *

Rose and Adrian breathed heavily, having ran to the nearby cemetery, only to bump into Mathias, eyes puffy and red from crying. "So…you doing…better Mathias?" Rose breathed out. Mathias merely muttered a "fine." before walking away, his bangs hiding his eyes. Rose and Adrian looked at each other before moving to join Mathias. Adrian said "Now that you have recovered, we should plan another training session soon. You will need to build and get used to a new gunpla, and we will assist you in doing so." "I'm not battling." Rose and Adrian froze. "Wait, you're going to prove that arrogant prick **right**?! Mathias, come on! So you lost one match, so what? You just get up and keep fighting!" Rose said emphatically, only to shrink back when Mathias turned, a haunted look combined with rage in his eyes. "It **wasn't** _just_ _a match_! He **destroyed** my gunpla, he **destroyed** the head, he **DESTROYED** -" "We know what that means to you. I am sorry for the loss of the connection to your sister, but that is not a good enough reason to quit battling." Adrian cut in, and Mathias's rage shifted to shock. "How do you know about _that_?!" He asked, and Adrian pushed his glasses up. "Your parents informed us. We are here to make sure this does not affect you too badly, but it appears we will have to take different methods to help you heal." "Help me _heal_?!" Mathias shouted incredulously, rage blinding him at what he perceived as a breach of privacy by his parents. How could they tell Rose and Adrian about Ariel?! "You don't even _understand_! You don't know what this feels like, to lose family and then lose them again. One of you is the school rich kid and the other's the music division's golden girl! How could you understand? The two of you haven't lost **anything**!" Mathias was knocked out of his tirade by Rose and Adrian punching him at the same time. Rose he could understand, but Adrian?! Rose huffed and said "You have _no_ idea of the shit I went through. I had to claw my way from the dirt to get where I am, so don't start talking about _loss_ , because you at least _had_ something to lose." Adrian merely frowned and said "I may not know loss like you or Rose, but I do know the feeling of neglect. I was the second child. Not much was expected of me by my family, except as a _back up_ , a _just in-case_. Do not assume you are the only one to have suffered. Many have faced worse." With that said Rose and Adrian walked away, leaving the stunned Mathias behind.

* * *

Rose and Adrian watched the remains of the Heavyarms Kai Desert recon be cleaned up, Rose having grabbed the remains of the head as soon as they returned. Rose now sat a table with Adrian looking at the last remnant of Mathias's gunpla. "We need to get him back to battling, we don't have the option to find a new teammate. Also," Rose grabbed at her hair after setting the head down before continuing to say, "I want to keep my promise to his parents, but he is being such an _ass_! How are we supposed to help when he won't let anyone in?" Adrian took a sip of water he bought and said "He won't respond to comfort or the like. He has grown used to that coming from his confidence or Ariel via proxy through his gunpla. What Alan did broke him. Now Mathias is searching for something to pull him back that isn't tied to what Alan did, but his own attitude will stop him from finding it in people. If we are to keep our promise and restore him, we will need to hit hard and break his barriers." "But how are we supposed to do that? You heard Mr. Winns, he won't let people get close because he is afraid they might replace his sister." Adrian pushed up his glasses. "And that is why we will hit him with the only person who can get to him, his sister." Rose looked at Adrian confused. "But she's dead." "I have a plan, but we will need to talk to Mathias's parents and enlist help from the AUF."

* * *

Mathias walked into his parent's arcade the next day, having chosen to roam the town rather than confront his family or the AUF, only to be trapped in a bear hug by Dolohov. "What the- Dolohov, let me go!" Dolohov manhandled Mathias into the team practice room of 'The Winning Streak' and said "I am sorry major general, but this is for your own good." Once they entered Mathias could see all the system's but one were pushed to the walls and every member of the AUF that could had surrounded the battle system. By the system was Rose, Adrian, and his parents. Rose was holding two gunpla pouches and Adrian was tinkering with something at an angle Mathias couldn't see. As Dolohov walked to the battle system, the crowd had closed up behind them, barring any escape. Dolohov finally set Mathias down in front of the system before stepping back to join his teammates in the crowd. Mathias looked around before glaring at Rose and Adrian. "What's this for? I already told you I'm not battling again." Rose tossed one of the gunpla pouches at him and Mathias reflexively caught it. "Open it." Mathias humoured Rose and opened the pouch only to drop it in shock. Inside was the Sandrock Blizzard, the same gunpla he used to pilot alongside his sister that, until recently, was locked in the display case in his room alongside the Heavyarms Blizzard, Ariel's gunpla, which had a new head that Mathias had swapped the original with. Mathias gently picked up the pouch and turned to interrogate Rose on how she got it, only to choke upon seeing her pull the Heavyarms Blizzard from her pouch. "I don't care what you think or want, because I am going to help you. _We_ are going to help you." Rose said, gesturing to everyone around them. "The two of us are gonna battle with these gunpla, right here, right now, and I am going to get through that thick head of yours and snap you out of this self-destructive funk." Mathias merely stared at Rose before looking at the Sandrock Blizzard and said "Fine. One last match, but after this you don't bother me again. And that goes for the rest of you!" Mathias turned to look at the members of the AUF. "After this match I'm resigning as major general, and none of you will change my mind." Mathias turned back to Rose as the battle system activated.

"Gunpla Battle combat mode, startup. Model damage level, set to B. Please set your GP Base." Mathias set his GP Base and choked when Rose set Ariel's GP Base down, which he recognized by the snowflakes along the casing she had painted on. "Beginning Plavsky particle dispersal. Field 13, tundra. Please set your gunpla" The particles settled to reveal the same windswept snowfield Mathias had just fought Alan on. Rose started to reconsider after Mathias started to hyperventilate from the memory before she hardened herself. Adrian had hacked the system to choose this field for the match specifically due to its connection to both the fight that just occurred between Mathias and Alan, and even deeper to the basis of Ariel and Mathias's relationship as the 'Blizzard Twins'. Rose set the Heavyarms Blizzard onto the battle system and Mathias shakily did the same with the Sandrock Blizzard before they both grabbed the controls. "Battle start." "Rose Fayre, Heavyarms Blizzard, let's kick up a storm!" Mathias choked at hearing Rose use his sister's launch phrase and accidentally set his Sandrock flying into the battlefield by accident.

Mathias managed to shakily land the Sandrock Blizzard from its unplanned flight, as he had been out of practice with it for years. He scanned the area and his radar for Rose as he drew the Sandrock's twin heat shotels. The system sent out a warning and Mathias leapt back to dodge the hail of beam shots from the Heavyarms Blizzard, which had leapt down in a spin with its beam gatling shield to ambush him. "Prepare yourself Mathias, because I won't hold back!" Rose yelled. Mathias instinctively leapt forward to slice the heat shotels through the Heavyarms Blizzard, but hesitated as he remembered what he was fighting, giving Rose time to crouch and fling the Heavyarms Blizzard's leg out to kick the Sandrock Blizzard into the air. She then aimed and fired the beam gatling at the airborne Sandrock Blizzard, and it was only thanks to Mathias gunning the thrusters that he evaded defeat right then and there. He landed only to dodge the Heavyarms Blizzard's army knife and again swung the heat shotel in his right hand only for it to be knocked aside by the Heavyarms' shield in a pirouette while the army knife raked across the Sandrock's chest armor. Mathias leapt back, inwardly shocked. Rose wasn't fighting like normal, she was fighting like Ariel had! He didn't know that Rose had spent the rest of yesterday training with Adrian under Michael's watch, being coached on how Ariel used to fight. "Come on Mathias, you can do better than this! Snap out of it and **fight**!" The Heavyarms Blizzard kept spinning and launched off the ground, its beam gatling carving a path towards Mathias's gundam through the snow while the shoulder armor opened to fire missiles in a spiral that closed in around the Sandrock Blizzard, cutting off any escape. Mathias growled and set his gundam into a spin, slicing through the missiles and hiding within the smoke screen to avoid the beam gatling's shots. The Heavyarms Blizzard landed, only to immediately jump back as the Sandrock Blizzard leapt through the smoke, heat shotels raised to carve the Heavyarms Blizzard apart. "How **dare** you fight like her with _her_ gunpla!" Mathias was completely consumed in rage, and his attacks were completely random. Rose merely dodged with grace, like a dancer, in order to evade Mathias's attacks. "Seriously Mathias, this is just pathetic. You're barely a challenge like this. Did it really just take one blow to the memory of your sis to make you lose all your skill?" "Just shut up! I am going to make you **pay** for doing this to her gunpla!" "What, using it for what it was meant for? This gunpla was made to fight, not look pretty! Your pain has blinded you to this! What would Ariel say if she saw you like this?" "I said **shut up**!" Finally the Sandrock Blizzard slowed down as Mathias tired out, and Rose took the opening. The Heavyarms Blizzard darted low and both fists launched up in twin uppercuts, knocking the heat shotels from the Sandrock's hands before moving into a sweep kick and knocked the Sandrock Blizzard to the ground as the heat shotels stabbed down a short distance away. Mathias moved to stand the Sandrock Blizzard up, only for a beam gatling barrel to push it back down. He looked up at the com Rose opened and spat out "Finish it then!" Rose stared in determination and said "I'm not trying to beat you, I'm trying to _help_ you. Why can't you get that?" "Because nobody can! Not since then! Not since I lost my sister! And I refuse to let you disrespect her by fighting with her gunpla!" The Sandrock started to push up against the beam gatling, but the Heavyarms pushed it back down. "Damn it Mathias! For once just drop the egotistical asshole persona and **listen**!" Mathias froze at Rose's outburst, and to his shock a vision started to form in his sight. "I _know_ you're hurting, but you need to let go. You can keep your sister in your heart without forgetting her memory, you just have to _try_. Please Mathias/ _little brother_ , please, just let go." In mathias's vision, a young woman had overlaid his view of Rose. She was petite with long white hair that framed her white dress to the knee and made her pale skin seem like it was made of pure snow. Red eyes stared into Mathias's with disappointment as Ariel Winns stood in front of him, and then time seemed to stop. "S-sis?" Mathias choked out, unsure if this was real. Ariel reached out and cupped his cheeks, and Mathias leaned into the cool touch. " _Little brother, what are you doing? This isn't how a gunpla fighter should act. What happened to turn you into this?_ " Mathias broke down and sobbed "I'm s-sorry. I d-didn't know what to d-do when you died. I-It felt like a p-part of me was ri-ripped out." Ariel used her hand to raise Mathias's chin and looked him in the eye. " _It's okay, I forgive you. You were hurting, so you lashed out in an attempt to protect yourself, I understand. But it isn't me you should apologize to. It's everyone else you need to look to for forgiveness. Make things right little brother, for both of us._ " Ariel then looked at the frozen crowd around them, her eyes gliding past the members of the AUF to settle on their parents and Mathias's teammates. " _You have truly great friends if they are willing to do so much to help you. They deserve the best you can give._ " At that, something inside Mathias snapped back into place, and he stood back up, Ariel by his side. "Y-you're right. I need to apologize for the shit I pulled, to the AUF, to my teammates, and to mom and dad. But, what about my Heavyarms? I completely wrecked it. How will I keep battling?" Ariel smiled and placed her hand on Mathias's. " _Don't worry, Heavyarms was never truly meant to be your gunpla. Its purpose was to serve as a transition to your true gunpla."_ Ariel then looked at Rose with a grin and said " _Now, I admit she does good at imitating my style, but how about you show her how the Blizzard Twins really fought._ " Mathias mirrored the grin as Ariel faded away. "That sounds like a great idea." He then turned to glance at the spot Ariel had been before looking back at the battle. "Thank you, sis." He then thrust his control orb forward as time resumed. Rose was caught off guard as the Sandrock's thrusters went full power, kicking the snow up and knocking her back as Mathias flew up into the air. The Sandrock Blizzard landed next to its heat shotels and picked them up. Mathias then launched his gundam forward, skimming the ground with its feet and heat shotels until it looked like a snow storm was heading towards Rose. She raised the Heavyarms Blizzard's army knife and shield as the snow storm passed her. Suddenly the snow rushed past revealing the Sandrock Blizzard kneeling a distance behind the Heavyarms Blizzard, its heat shotels held to the side. It then stood up and stored the heat shotels as the Heavyarms Blizzard fell, a massive X carved on its body and slicing through the power core.

* * *

"Battle ended." Mathias stood confident as the battle system shut down and picked up the Sandrock Blizzard before sighing. "It's good to be back." Rose and Adrian walked over. "So, you better now?" Rose asked, and Mathias let out a laugh. "Better than ever! I'm ready to prove Alan's ass wrong!" "Good, then you may want this." Adrian said as he held out what he had been tinkering with during the battle. It was the Heavyarms Kai Desert Recon's head in a tiny plastic case suspended by a string. Mathias grabbed it and slipped it around his neck as a necklace. "Thanks. And guys, I'm, I'm sorry about how I acted." Rose patted Mathias's shoulder and grinned. "No problem! I'm just glad you're back to how you apparently used to be." Mathias laughed. "I'm so much more than I used to be. Now then," Mathias said grinning, "I need to make myself a new gunpla. Can't show up to the tournament empty-handed now." Adrian joined Rose in clapping his hand to Mathias's shoulder. "Indeed. Luckily the tournament is two days away. That way you can get used to your new gunpla as well as perfect our teamwork." The surrounding members of the AUF cheered at the major general's return to better times and funneled out while Rose and Adrian took a few steps back, just in time for Mrs. Winns to rush at Mathias and pulled him into a hug. Mr. Winns walked over and joined the family hug, and Rose and Adrian stepped out to give the family privacy.

* * *

Mathias sat at his personal workbench in his room, debating on what his new gunpla would be. "I need a new gunpla, but which one?" Mathias looked at the Sandrock Blizzard standing on the table before him. "Not the Sandrock. It still works for me, but I've moved on from it. The Heavyarms is too ingrained in my combat style to switch back for more than a few fights." Mathias slid the Sandrock back into the display case with the Heavyarms Blizzard. "Still, Ariel said that the Heavyarms was a transition to my true gunpla. So then, what's the next step?" Mathias leaned back and stared at his shelves. The wall above his workshop table was covered in shelves that held gunplas for the protagonists and major antagonists/rivals of every Gundam series so far. Mathias often stared at those shelves for inspiration. When he wanted to design a new gunpla, he would look at his shelves until one or more gunplas caught his eye. His free builds that resulted from this method were on the shelf on the wall behind him. His eyes lazily drifted along the shelves until they stopped on the Gundam Double X. "Hmm, now that could work, but it still feels like something is missing. But what?" Mathias's eyes continued to search, but their next stop was not on a gunpla, but a picture. It was of the entire Winns family outside a stadium, the last family picture they took before the disaster of the 7th Annual Gunpla Championship finals. Mathias frowned as he remembered that day, the horrid fight between the Star Build Strike and Amazing Exia Dark Matter, as well as the unexpected battle against the Ao Bao Qu replica after. Mathias narrowed his eyes as he remembered the fighters of that day before they widened. Mathias darted over to his computer and pulled up everything he could find on Mao Yasaka during the 7th Annual Gunpla Championship. Finally an image popped up and he set it to fullscreen. It was the Crossbone Gundam Maoh, which made its debut during the Ao Bao Qu battle. Mathias remembered seeing it fire a satellite cannon shot from the skull on its chest. Mathias looked between the image of the Crossbone Gundam Maoh and his Gundam Double X model before his eyes shot open wide. He immediately grabbed a sketchpad and pencil and began drawing a blueprint. After an hour of sketching, Mathias set the pencil down and looked at the paper in front of him. "Yes, this feels right. This will be my new gunpla." He moved over to the excess plastic pile he had from the plastic trees his gunpla parts came from and grabbed some before he moved to a 3-D printer and the computer beside it. "This is gonna be an all-nighter." Mathias muttered to himself as he opened a designing program and began creating the shape of the custom parts for his new gunpla and sending them to the printer to make.

* * *

Mathias's mom opened the door to his room to see Mathias slumped over his workbench snoring, a gunpla set before him. The gunpla had the limbs and backpack of the Gundam Double X, but the body, head, and weapons were that of the Crossbone Gundam Maoh. The arms and backpack weren't attached, and the weapons were unfinished, and these things plus the metal file in his hand showed he had fallen asleep while working. Mathias's mom smiled and grabbed the blankets from his bed and draped them over him before turning off the lights and closing the door.

* * *

 **So this chapter is short, especially given how long last chapter was. Sorry, but not much is meant to happen this chapter besides some background exposition for Mathias, as well as bits of background for Rose and Adrian, and his reformation from cocky and arrogant asshole to just cocky and arrogant, but kind. Now he will just have that underestimating kind exterior that hides a deadly and cunning force. Think Gin Ichimaru without the shiftiness, or better yet, Hazama without the Terumi, if that makes any sense. He will still insult people, but now it will only be hateful to enemies that earn his ire, otherwise it will just be regular anime banter. Next chapter is gonna be interesting though. We are getting closer and closer to the tournament. If I don't start it next chapter, it will be in the chapter after next. No marked references, but the single unique gundam here, Mathias's new one, is buildable with HG sets, though the backpack needs the extension piece from the Crossbone Gundam Maoh's backpack to fit, and it's not a tight fit. The name for this gunpla will be revealed next chapter, as well as its performance. So, I'll be seeing you guys in the next chapter! JA NE!**

 **P.S. Just thought to add this. The whole bit with Ariel was not a spiritual visit. It was more a hallucination brought on from stress and his current mental state alongside a buried sense that he wasn't acting as Ariel would want. His mental state at that moment however makes him think it was her ghost. The whole bit of his true gunpla thing is because, subconciously, he knew he couldn't keep using the Heavyarms and would need to move on, if not for sanity's sake, then to keep up with the other gunpla fighters.**


	4. All Out War, True Teamwork is Shown!

**Welp, here we come to the end of the first arc of Shining Jewels of America. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!**

* * *

 _In the depths of space, a great battle was being fought between the Principality of Zeon and Earth Federation Forces. The wreckage of numerous Zakus, Rick Doms, and GMs floated throughout space between a Musai cruiser and White Base, locked in a zero-G dogfight. In the center of the battlefield were three mobile suits: Char's Zaku, the Fullbody Gundam, and the RX-78-2 Gundam. Amuro, the pilot of the RX-78-2, was barely holding his foes off. Char on his own was a challenge, but this new unknown in an experimental gundam-type mobile suit was an absolute monster!_

" _Give up Amuro! Surrender the gundam and you and the soldiers of White Base will be treated fairly as our prisoners!" Char yelled over the com links._

" _Yeah, give up already. Otherwise I'll bring your gundam back to Zeon in pieces. Then I'll feel bad for our engineers who will have to clean it out for your remains." the other MS pilot, Alan Hawk, cockily said._

 _Meanwhile, captain Bright Noa watched as Amuro was slowly overwhelmed by his opponents. "We don't have a choice. Launch the Tri-X!"_

 _A mobile suit pilot grinned at the order over the intercoms and climbed into his cockpit. "And here I thought I would never hear that order." The man started up his own experimental gundam-type mobile suit before igniting its back-mounted thrusters. "Mathias Winns, Tri-X Gundam, ready to sortie!" The Tri-X Gundam leapt out of White Base's hangar, the thrusters launching it at speeds comparable to the linear accelerator on board. Immediately the twin beam cannons on the Tri-X's backpack folded over to lock onto the shoulder pads and fired off a massive pair of beams that the Fullbody and Zaku had to dodge. The Tri-X floated over next to Amuro and a second com opened, Mathias looking at Amuro with a Cheshire grin. "Looks like you could use some help Amuro."_

 _Char watched with wide eyes while Alan gritted his teeth. "Another gundam!? How!?"_

 _Amuro sighed and grinned. "Yeah. Now, let's finish this, right, Char!"_

" _Amuro!"_

 _Char and Amuro charged towards each other, the Tri-X and Fullbody following suit._

" _I will end you here and now Mathias!"_

" _Not on your life Alan!"_

 _Right before the four mobile suits could collide, a loud ringing tore through the battlefield._

* * *

"What the-!" Mathias suddenly launched himself back, tipping his chair and crashing his head to the floor. He curled up and clutched the back of his head. "Owwww." Eventually, Mathias groggily stood up to stare at his incomplete gunpla before fumbling for his desk clock, still ringing loudly. "What time is it?" Bleary eyes stared at the digital screen. "11:15 huh?" The clock was slowly set down, and for a few moments, everything was calm. Then Mathias let out a scream. "11:15! Shit, I'm late for class!" With the rapid pace of a panicking student, Mathias stored the various parts of his new gunpla and his tools into an expanded gunpla case before changing clothes and rushing out of his room, down the stairs, and out of the 'Winning Streak' gunpla arcade in a mad dash for school, backpack and case in tow.

* * *

Rose stared at the now complete Tri-X Gundam on the table in the clubhouse, Adrian fiddling with the battle system and Mathias smoothing out the remaining weapons. "So, this is your new gunpla?"

"Yep, I call it the Tri-X Gundam. It is a fusion of the Gundam Double X and the Crossbone Gundam Maoh. It is fully capable of using its three satellite cannons singularly or in combination. The charging system is also altered to allow for more diverse charging. With it, I can still use the cannons without the lunar satellite system by utilizing solar energy, though it is still capable of being charged by the satellite system."

"Wow, that is pretty impressive."

"It is, but, for some reason, it still feels incomplete. It feels like I'm missing something, but I can't imagine what."

"It'll come to you."

Adrian stood up and closed the cover for the battle system's OS. "Indeed. Now, shall we test both your gunpla and our teamwork? I just upgraded the AI for the mocks based on our previous fights."

A smirk grew on both Rose and Mathias's faces. "Hell yes."

* * *

The three team members stood before the machine. "Gunpla Battle simulation mode, startup. Model damage level, set to C. Please set your GP Base." The three set their GP bases as the Plavsky Particles once more formed the battlefield they would train in. "Beginning Plavsky particle dispersal. Field 1, Space." An asteroid field took form, a UC-era colony right at the edge of the field, and a sliver of a sun at the 'roof' of the stage. "Please set your Gunpla." The three gunpla were placed on the machine, and the battle began.

"Mathias Winns, Tri-X Gundam, ready to sortie!"

"Rose Fayre, Burning Gundam Beta, let's fight!"

"Adrian Brown, Deathscythe EW Variant, launching."

The Deathscythe and Burning Gundam, having engaged hyper mode in order to better operate in zero G's, darted between the asteroids towards the colony, but the Tri-X seemed to flit between the gaps like a hummingbird. "Haha! This thing reacts like a dream!" The Tri-X then darted straight up out of the asteroid field and engaged the panels on its limbs and backpack. Sunlight seemed to pool around the gundam as the lower pair of back panels began to glow. "And the solar charge system is operating at full capacity!" Immediately after the bottom pair were fully glowing, Mathias closed the panels and darted back to fly next to his teammates while opening a com. "The Tri-X is operating at peak efficiency, so how about we put your mock upgrades to the test Adrian. By the way, what exactly _are_ we fighting?"

Suddenly, the three fighters had to dart to the sides as a purple, lightning covered energy blast tore through an asteroid and past them. Turning to look, Mathias felt his blood freeze. Floating in space before him were three mobile suits. The center one was white with a gold V-fin, a glowing pink inner frame shining through gaps in the armor. It had a massive shield on its left arm, and a beam rifle with an energy pack magazine in its right. To its right was a blue and white mobile suit with a backpack mounted shield on its left shoulder, detachable bits covering it. A green edged gun was held in its right hand, and a flick of its wrist shifted the gun into a sword. Green particles were flowing out of an exhaust on its back. And finally, on the white MS's left was the most terrifying of all, a rounded white Gundam with a blue and red chest. An oval shield was on its left arm, and the suit looked like it had an exaggerated mustache attached.

"Oh shit, I thought we were fighting upgraded mocks, not three of the more deadly gundams of the entire franchise! What the hell possessed you to set these three against us Adrian?!" Mathias yelled as he dodged a second beam blast from the NT-D mode Unicorn Gundam, pulling the bone shaped weapons from the Tri-X's hips and returning fire.

"I agree with Mathias, **what** **the** **fuck** **Adrian**!?" Rose added as the Qan[T] darted through her machine gun fire and forced her to dodge its sword swings, throwing in punches whenever she had the chance, though they were nimbly dodged by her opponent.

The Deathscythe EW Variant cloaked to avoid the Turn A's energy mace. The Turn A quickly raised its shield behind it to block Adrian's de-cloaked energy scythe. "I apologize. I may have gone a bit overboard in programming our opponents. Thankfully I did not program them to act like their pilots would."

"That is a shame, I would have loved to battle such icons like Setsuna or Banagher." Mathias said **(1)**. "Still, we can't beat them alone, they are too skilled. We need to divide and conquer, and I know just how to do it. Rose, Adrian, focus on the Turn A! It's the most dangerous if it gets the chance to activate Moonlight Butterfly!" The skull on the Tri-X's chest opened to reveal a miniature satellite cannon. A massive beam of blue energy fired out, forcing the Unicorn and Qan[T] to dodge right while the Turn A dodged left. Immediately the Burning Gundam Beta's beam saber pierced the Turn A's head while its body was impaled on the Deathscythe's energy scythe. The two quickly disengaged as the Turn A exploded.

Immediately the Tri-X opened the panels along its body, gathering energy as it took potshots at the Unicorn and Qan[T]. "Alright, I need time to charge up to full blast in order to overpower the Unicorn. I can hold it off long enough to do so, but you two need to take care of the Qan[T]! If you can't defeat it, then make sure it can't go Trans-Am, or we are screwed!"

The Tri-X then focused fire purely on the Unicorn, forcing it to forego attack in order to avoid destruction. Seeing the opening, the Qan[T] darted forward to destroy the Tri-X. Immediately, the Burning Gundam Beta interposed itself between them, glowing with power as it fired off an energy blast from its exposed core. The Qan[T] dodged, beginning to glow red as it launched its six GN sword bits. The glow immediately died as the Deathscythe EW Variant appeared behind it and sliced upwards, severing its backpack, and the twin GN drives stored in the backpack and shield, from the Qan[T]. The Qan[T] turned and launched its GN bits towards the Deathscythe EW Variant, but the bits stalled in space as the Burning Gundam Beta's fist erupted from the Qan[T]'s chest. The Qan[T] jerked as Rose pulled her gundam's fist out, and both her and Adrian returned to Mathias's side as the Qan[T] detonated. Four of the panels on the Tri-X's backpack were glowing as Adrian and Rose added their ranged weapons to the effort of pinning the Unicorn down. Eventually, the Tri-X became a beacon of light while the Unicorn was unable to escape the the beam barrage it was shielding against.

Mathias grinned upon noticing the state of his gundam, which was glowing from every panel on it, including the arm and leg mounted panels. "I'm fully charged! Now, let's test this little system I made."

The Tri-X locked its backpack mounted beam cannons to its shoulders as the skull on its chest opened once more. Finally, two cords extended from hidden panels on its forearms and connected to its crossbone sword/guns. Immediately, all five beam weapons began glowing blue.

"Tri-X satellite cannon system, full burst mode, **FIRE**!"

All five of the Tri-X's beam weapons fired out massive beams that consumed the Unicorn and blinded all three fighters. When the light died down, all three bore witness to pure destruction. A wide path was carved through the asteroid belt, and even pierced a hole through the distant colony, and there was absolutely nothing left of any of the three mocks they were fighting. If it were not for the damage to the belt and colony, then there would have been no evidence a fight had occurred. The Tri-X closed its charging panels and sheathed its weapons as several vents began releasing steam to cool the gundam after its massive attack. Rose, Adrian, and Mathias caught their gunplas as the battle system shut down.

"Battle ended."

* * *

Rose turned to stare at Mathias in shock. "Holy shit. What the fuck was that!"

"That, like I said before, was my improved satellite cannon system. I modified it for variable power. I can use one, two, or all three of my satellite cannons depending on the amount of charge my gundam has, and when overwhelming power is needed, I can overclock the system and channel energy through my beam weapons alongside the beam cannons for what I affectionately call full burst mode. Rather powerful, don't you think?"

"It was rather powerful. Now, how about we start another ma-" Adrian was cut off as an exhausted 10-year old girl busted into the clubhouse.

"Messenger scout Murray, what are you doing here?" At Rose's and Adrian's looks, Mathias elaborated. "The AUF is mainly for teens and adults, but we do allow younger children, especially relatives of our members, on as messengers amongst factions, mainly used during our faction duels and other inter/intra-group activities. Claire Murray here is the younger sister of private Gary Murray, one of the Astray fighters we fought. Now that that has been explained," Mathias turned back to Claire, "what is going on that required the AUF to contact me?"

"They sent me to tell you to return to the 'Winning Streak' immediately, and that the Zeon High Council has returned."

Mathias's face paled instantly and he rushed out of the clubhouse, Rose and Adrian sharing a look before following.

* * *

Mathias burst into the 'Winning Streak' to see a scene he had only experienced once before; a war between gunpla groups. Every battle system in the arcade was pushed together to generate the massive battlefield that included every variant of the fields. Two armies of gunpla were fighting, in space, in the sky, on the ground, and even underwater. Several had the shooting star symbol of the AUF somewhere on them, but the vast majority had the Zeon symbol. Mathias could also see there were clustered areas in the battlefield, and he spotted several of the AUF's best fighters being surrounded. Dolohov and the Dark Tri-Stars were holed up in a forest that was being destroyed by waves of beam fire, Alice was slicing through an endless wave of enemies while her teammates provided support, several others were completely surrounded but holding their own, and in the sky, locked in a two-on-two battle, were four gunpla Mathias recognized.

On the AUF side were Adam and Lilith, the paired gunpla of his parents that were only brought out for special AUF events **(2)**. Adam was based on the RX-78NT-1 Gundam "Alex", though it was given equipment from several other models. Instead of the standard backpack, it had the wing-styled funnel binders of the Hi-Nu Gundam, and several panels along its body opened to reveal the inner psycoframe inherent to the Unicorn as it deflected a beam saber with its own and fired a shot from its beam magnum, also from the Unicorn. The Lilith was built from the Gundam Astraea, though like the Adam, it was modified. It was equipped with twin shields from the Reborns Gundam as well as the GN sword III of the Gundam 00. It's backpack was a modified Raiser unit, a gold color replacing the normal blue, with a somewhat bulky box in the place of its cockpit. The purpose of the box was revealed when Lilith's left arm was sliced off. Hundreds of Karel units flew out and grabbed the wayward arm, quickly reattaching it and returning to their container **(3)**.

On the side of the Zeon High Council were two gunpla Mathias had hoped not to see again for a while. The leader of the Council was piloting a fusion of the Sazabi and Sinanju, its twin beam axes trying to tear the Lilith to shreds while its twin sets of funnels, doubling the original six of the Sazabi, were holding off the funnels and GN fangs of both Adam and Lilith, and facing against the Adam was the cloaked form of the Fullbody Gundam.

"Alan, it wasn't enough to try and break me, now you are trying to take away what my family worked so hard on to make?" Mathias muttered to himself before turning to Adrian and Rose. "Alright, quick explanation. The Zeon High Council are nothing more than gunpla-using thugs and criminals that want the East coast of America under their thumb before they move on westward. We need to stop them and send them packing. I'll explain better afterwards. However, if you want to help, you will need to join the AUF to do so, as this is an inter-group conflict. Here." Mathias tossed them each a small sticker of the AUF symbol before putting one on the armor piece of the Tri-X's right forearm. "If you want to join, slap that sticker on your gunpla and jump in."

Mathias slapped his GP Base and gunpla down before charging into battle with grim-faced determination. Rose thought for a moment before slapping the sticker onto the left front skirt armor of the Burning Gundam Beta and launching out next to Mathias, followed right behind by Adrian, who had taken the time to neatly place the sticker on his Deathscythe EW Variant's right wing.

The three fighters charged through the enemy, every mobile suit that stood against them falling to their onslaught like wheat before a scythe, literally in the case of those defeated by Adrian. Mobile suits from every evil faction of the Gundam multiverse charged forward, only to be sliced up, pummeled, shot at, and outright _obliterated_. Finally, the three came to a lull in the fighting, and Mathias quickly took charge.

"Alright, we are gonna need to free up our best. Adrian," the Tri-X pointed to the slowly deteriorating forest, "go assist the Dark Tri-Stars. Rose," the Tri-X then turned to gesture at the veritable mosh pit nearby, "clear a way for Alice and her team. I will go assist my parents." His orders given, Mathias launched upwards towards the four-way battle, solar panels opening to gather energy. Adrian and Rose looked at each other and nodded before heading off to their respective targets.

Mathias stopped the Tri-X just outside the sensor range of the four gundams ahead and checked his power supply. Seeing four panels charged, Mathias unfolded the back-mounted satellite cannons and fired. The four gundams immediately disengaged to evade the blast, but the funnels and GN fangs were all obliterated.

Alan quickly opened a com to identify who was piloting this new gundam, only to grin evilly at seeing Mathias. "Well, I'm surprised you managed to snap back Mathias! I figured you would still be crying over the remnants of your poor little gunpla. Did you move on already? Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you're more cold-hearted than I thought." Suddenly, a beam shot erupted from the crossbone gunsword the Tri-X just detached from its waist and blasted off the clasp holding the Fullbody's cloak, causing it to blow away in the wind. 'I didn't even see that. What kind of gunpla did he make?' Alan thought.

"I'll say this once, give up or I will personally tear you apart." Mathias said in a steely tone, glaring at Alan, who merely scoffed at the threat.

Suddenly, a second com opened, revealing the image of a 23 year old with several facial piercings and a spiked blond mohawk. He was wearing a white sleeveless shirt with a black overcoat with torn sleeves. "You really think you can stand against us a second time?! How about you do us a favor, and surrender! Maybe I'll let you have a higher rank in the Council's forces than lackey!" The figure was Azrael Stevens, one of the founders and leader of the Zeon High Council.

"It's been awhile Azrael. Tell me, when was the last time we saw each other? Oh yeah, you and your gang were running with your tails between your legs after I reduced your gunpla to swiss cheese." Mathias snidely remarked. "We aren't joining you. I thought we made it clear last time. Guess we just need to hammer the lesson in. However, that's not my job. Mom, dad," Mathias turned to look at the com he opened with his parents, "do you mind handling Azrael, because Alan is mine." he finished coldly.

Michael merely turned and charged forward at Azrael's MS. "Give 'em hell son."

Hannah stared at Mathias before her kind face turned steely. "Show him why one doesn't mess with our family." That said, Hannah joined her husband in combat.

The Tri-X and Fullbody floated in midair, facing one another. "So you got a new gunpla. Don't think that it's gonna make a-" Alan launched his gundam backwards in order to dodge a swipe from the beam blade from the Tri-X's weapon, though the gash on the Fullbody's chest showed he hadn't dodged fast enough.

"Shut up and fight."

Alan was put on the defensive as the Tri-X let loose a barrage of attacks, the beam blades and heated edges of its weapons damaging the Fullbody no matter how quickly it dodged. Finally, the Fullbody got enough distance to draw its three beam sabers in a claw like fashion in its right hand and lunged forward, only for the attack to be dodged and the beam sabers sliced in two, before the Tri-X shifted its weapon to beam gun mode and blasted the Fullbody's right arm off.

"Shit!"

The Fullbody suddenly vibrated before fading away, the upper layer of paint having peeled off to form an afterimage. The Fullbody then reappeared behind the Tri-X. It folded its left hand into a spiked fist and engaged the thruster on its left elbow. The arm launched forwards to blow right through the Tri-X's chest. Moments before impact the Tri-X turned and backhanded the Fullbody's arm away and opened the skull mounted on its chest, all six panels on its backpack glowing, the Tri-X having been charging its satellite cannons throughout the fight. Alan only had the time to widen his eyes before the Fullbody was consumed in the massive energy blast, the top two panels losing their glow as they folded up to storage mode. Alan scowled and walked away from the battle station as the remnants of the Fullbody fell to the simulated ground below. Mathias watched as Alan left the building before flying off to assist some of the other aces in the AUF.

* * *

Unseen by everyone, the invisible Deathscythe EW Variant darted into the forest the Dark Tri-Stars were in and decloaked before approaching the three, who were huddled together in their generated I-field dome while they came up with a plan to counterattack. Immediately a com opened between Dolohov and Adrian.

"It is good to see you again Adrian, and good to see you have joined the AUF. I guess I should call you comrade now." The other two members of the Dark Tri-Stars jerked at the sudden conversation before opening a com with Adrian.

"It is good to see you too Dolohov. Mathias sent me to assist you. Do you have any plans currently?"

Dolohov developed a mischievous grin that was soon shared by his teammates. "We had a plan, but I think we have come up with an even better one."

One of the members of the Zeon force, specifically a GINN MS user, stopped firing on the forest the Dark Tri-Stars were in. "Man, it's like shooting fish in a barrel! I remember these guys were trouble last time, but now they're a joke!"

The fighter next to him, piloting a Barzam, continued shooting. "It may be easy now, but these guys are top fighters here, so don't give them an inch or they'll take a mile." When he got no retort, the Barzam pilot looked over to see the GINN having a hole in its chest before it blew up, launching the Barzam and other mobile suits near it to the ground. Immediately after, similar explosions began cropping up throughout the Zeon forces. Eventually the Deathscythe EW Variant appeared in an open area of the Zeon forces before drawing its twin beam pistols and began performing a beam shot variant of Reaper's ultimate from Overwatch.

"Shit! Where the hell did this guy come from?!"

A GM Quel pilot, who was hiding behind his shield from Adrian's assault, scowled before pulling up his rifle and aiming at the Deathscythe EW Variant. "I don't care where he came from! Take him out befo-!" The pilot was cut off as his GM was blown up. The Zeon forces turned to see the Dark Tri-Stars standing at the edge of the forest, one of which was holding up a smoking Raketen bazooka. The enemy pilots had only a moment to panic before they were pinned between the Dark Tri-Stars and Adrian. After a few minutes, the four AUF fighters were standing in the middle of the battlefield, destroyed mobile suits surrounding them.

"Haha! We showed these Zeon High Council members not to fight with us!" Dolohov then looked at Adrian. "Now, we shall go free up more of our allies. Will you join us?"

Adrian merely pushed his glasses up. "Of course Dolohov." With that said, the four mobile suits launched off in search of more enemies.

* * *

Rose charged right into the horde of enemies and began clearing a path towards Team Nobel, enemies either reeling back with severe damage from her gundam's devastating punches and kicks, or, if they were lucky, reduced to scrap by said attacks.

However, all good things must end, and this one ended with the Burning Gundam Beta being Char Kicked the remaining distance to Team Nobel by a red Union Flag. The Burning Gundam Beta was caught by the Gundam Nobel before it had to deploy its built-in beam shield to protect the two from the ranged onslaught pinning the team down, the Nobel Gyan and Nobel Z'Gok forming a triangle around the Burning Gundam Beta.

"It's good to see you again Miss Rose, but I'm afraid you caught us at a bad time!"

Rose immediately raised her gunpla's built in machine guns and opened fire through gaps in the beam shield wall, taking down several mobile suits. Suddenly, a pair of funnels fired through the same gaps and destroyed the machine guns, leaving Rose with only the head vulcans for range. "What the heck was that?!"

Alice grimaced before launching her beam saber out with her wire mounted arm, only to quickly retract it before it hit anything when a RF Zaku swung its beam hawk down to try and sever the cord. "We are facing the High Council's Counter Squad. They are a group of skilled fighters that work alongside the mooks. They generally pilot mass-produced suits like the rest, but they design them better. They are also skilled tacticians who use the troops around them as cannon fodder to study the enemy's style and secrets before diving in, disabling strengths and exploiting weaknesses. That is why we are still pinned down. They're countering everything we have."

"Well, do you have anything in reserve?"

"One thing, but it's not guaranteed to get us out, and if it doesn't, we will be sitting ducks."

"What is it?"

"Pseudo Trans-Am built through a combination of the EXAM and ZERO systems. Boosts our gunpla's capabilities and gives us a much higher combat skill by identifying all sorts of weak spots on the enemy, but greatly wears down the gunpla and gives us a massive headache when it shuts down due to all the information it throws in our face."

"Alright, I'll clear out a gap, and you guys use that to plow right through. With luck, we can reach another AUF group that has cleared out their area and can strike back fast and hard." With that said, Rose connected her beam sabers and jumped up into the air before flinging them in a spin, thrusters launching her right behind them. The dual ended beam saber, now a beam buzzsaw, cut through several enemies on the front line, including the RF Zaku that was caught off guard by the unorthodox attack. The Burning Gundam Beta then dived down so it landed under the still flying beam saber and grabbed it, splitting it back in two and cutting a large hole in the enemy forces. Eventually a Qubeley stepped forward, its funnels fanning out and blasting off the Burning Gundam Beta's left arm. Rose merely set her Gundam into a low spin kick, launching the falling arm, and its ignited beam saber, into the Qubeley. A short dash let her reclaim the beam saber by connecting it to the one in her right hand and set forth into a dizzying set of twirls to destroy the enemies around her. She was quickly joined by the Nobel team, their mobile suit's visors tinged red and bows expanded to reveal vents as they darted around, taking huge chunks of the enemy forces out at once. After a couple of minutes the quartet burst through the lines, and just in time too, as the Nobel mobile suits toppled over as their visors lost their red glow and the bows closed up after releasing a final blast of steam.

"Shit, I hoped that would have lasted longer!" Rose shouted while the Nobel team cradled their heads from their massive headaches before turning to see the remnants of the Zeon high Council's Counter Squad approaching.

Rose stood between the Nobel team and the High Council's forces in a last stand scenario, only for a pair of mobile suits to land in front of her. The first was covered in white armor segments that looked like a blend of cyborg and samurai, covered with what looked like monoeyes, and silver tendrils extended out the back of the head to its waist in a semblance of hair. A long sheath was attached to its back, which Rose only noticed when the mobile suit, a gundam-style one she realized on seeing its twin horn-like v-fin mounted on the featureless helmet that formed its face as it turned to 'look' at the four and drew its sword, revealing it to be only a hilt before a beam blade ignited, turning it into an extended beam katana. The mobile suit next to it was also very interesting as its features from the back were concealed by a yellow cloak with black patterns. Its arms were wrapped in black coils that suddenly dropped off to form chain whips, green beam energy coiling around the chains at the end to form snake-shaped hooks. It also turned to look at Rose and the Nobel team to reveal a single yellow eye, the rest of its head hidden in the hood of its cloak. The two then turned towards the incoming Zeon High Council forces. The second mobile suit's chains wrapped around the first before they were engulfed in green and black energy. When the light show died down, there was only one mobile suit. It primarily looked like the first, only its armor and 'hair' was bulkier and black with glowing green lining, its hands were now clawed and a tail extended from the armor, which had more aesthetic changes. The shoulder pads took on the look of snarling wolf heads and its legs became more animalistic, but perhaps the biggest change was its face. Where before it was featureless, it now had a mouth of sharp teeth and glowing green eyes, the horns now giving off the impression of fox ears. It raised its beam katana, which turned into a massive black and green beam sword that it then swung through the enemy force, slicing a quarter of them into pieces. The sword shrunk down to a more normal size as it dived in, shredding through the enemy **(4)**.

"I am very thankful they are on our side." Rose said after a pause from watching the carnage. The Nobel Gyan managed to turn itself into its back before Alice spoke up, nursing her throbbing forehead.

"Yeah, that's Terry and Isaiah for you **(5)**. Out of gunpla, they are always arguing and fighting, but throw them into battle and they are unstoppable. They also have a love for that Japanese fighting game that was rather popular before gunpla called Blazblue, and their gunplas are direct references to three of the characters, though their names escape me."

"Well, they came at the right time." Rose then stared down at the Burning Gundam Beta. "After this I am going to invest in some ranged capability. So, can you guys move yet?" Rose was answered as the Nobel team slowly stood their mobile suits back up. "Excellent, if you can still fight after using that system, let's see if there is anyone we can help out." With that, Rose set her gundam into flight, the Nobel team following behind.

* * *

Azrael started to sweat as he used his beam axes and shields to deflect the attacks from the Adam and Lilith, this pattern having been occurring for the past two minutes, neither side gaining an edge. Suddenly he smirked and lunged forward, his left mounted shield activating a beam blade to impale the Lilith, hoping to take it out as its repair Karels kept him from winning earlier during the two-on-two fight. Unfortunately for him, he forgot this fight was two-on-one. The Adam dove in a sliced the shield, and Azrael's gundam's left arm, in half. Before he could react, the Lilith dived in and removed the right arm before both gundams sliced off the legs, leaving Azrael's gundam a floating body. Soon after this, Mathias, Rose, and Adrian joined Mathias's parents in front of Azrael.

"So Azrael, ready to admit defeat?" Mathias smirked.

" **Fuck you**!" was Azrael's response.

 **(Start playing G Gundam OST-Shining Finger)**

Mathias's smirk widened. "Very well then, guess we need a show of force." The two energy cables in the Tri-X's arms extended and Mathias slung them over to the Burning Gundam Beta and Deathscythe EW Variant. "Rose, Adrian, mind transferring over some power?" His only answer was the Burning Gundam Beta going into hyper mode and plugging the cord into its core while the Deathscythe EW Variant attached the cord to itself. The two cords began glowing gold and blue respectively as power transferred from the two gundams to the Tri-X. The cords detached as the Tri-X began glowing a blinding gold before it raised its beam swords to the sky, cords reconnecting to them. Immediately the glow died as a massive pillar of Plavsky particles, not the standard beam, erupted from the weapons. All fighting throughout the field stopped as everyone turned to see the massive attack coming from the Tri-X.

"Behold the power of my gundam, and of my team! This right here is the complete skill and power of the three of us gathered into one mighty attack, an attack so powerful it tears the very heavens asunder! Get ready Azrael, because here I come! _Shining Satellite Sword_!"

With those words shouted to the heavens, the Tri-X swung the massive pillar towards Azrael. Azrael was frozen before an instinctive flight or fight response had him gunning his gundam's thrusters, narrowly dodging the attack. A sadistic smirk formed on his face as a cover on his waist armor opened to reveal a high mega cannon. "Ha, so much for that Mathias! Now **die**!" However, before the cannon could fire, Azrael's gundam began to disintegrate. "Wha-what the _fuck_?!" Mathias, Rose, and Adrian smirked at Azrael's panic.

"You don't quite get it, do you. The Tri-X got more than just energy from my teammates." Mathias calmly stated.

"It also got the hyper mode and sheer power output of the Burning Gundam Beta." Rose continued.

"But how the fuck did it hit me?! I fucking _dodged_ it!" Azrael was then shocked as the pillar of particles expanded to reveal part of it going through the entirety of his gundam.

"As Mathias said, the Tri-X got more than energy from our gundams. From my Deathscythe EW Variant, he gained the control necessary to even use the attack, as well as my gundam's cloaking ability." came Adrian's cold response, light glinting as he pushed his glasses up.

Azrael panicked as his gundam finished disintegrating and ran from the shop. The remaining members of the Zeon High Council looked between them and had their gunplas launch out of the stage and to their hands before following their 'fearless leader'.

 **(End OST if it isn't already over)**

Mathias watched as the last enemy left the arcade before he sagged forward and released a massive sigh. "Holy shit I can't believe that actually worked."

Rose looked shocked at Mathias's statement. "Wait, you mean you had _no_ idea if that would even **work**?!"

"Nope!"

Rose rushed over and began shaking Mathias by his t-shirt's neckline while Adrian stood quietly to the side.

"That is quite amazing, your energy transfer system being capable of more than you assumed. We will have to test the actual limits at a later time. Regardless, I believe you had an explanation for us."

Mathias pushed Rose away and moved to pick up the only remaining enemy gunpla on the battle stations: the Fullbody Gundam. "You're right Adrian. Follow me up to my workshop and I'll give you the full story as I know it, as well as your new responsibilities as members of the AUF." Mathias walked upstairs to his family's home area, Adrian and Rose following.

* * *

Mathias set the Fullbody Gundam on top of his work table before turning to Adrian and Rose, who were sitting in his work chair and on his bed respectively, and leaned against his work table. "Alright then, allow me to give you the in-depth explanation on the Zeon High Council I promised you before that big battle." Mathias took a deep breath. "From what I know, the Zeon High Council started as a small group of thugs and thieves up in New York. I don't know exactly what started things, but I do know at some point they started a mass forced recruitment drive, going up against several gunpla groups and battling them and press ganging the losers into their group. Their growing influence drew more scum like them to their banner, and they moved up towards Maine, and afterwards they headed straight down along the coast. Currently the only areas they don't have an influence in is D.C., Georgia, and here. D.C. has some serious police forces, for obvious reasons, and from what I heard, Georgia was the first place they had major trouble. Apparently they steamrolled most groups they faced through either skill or cheating, but Georgia had a group of four people who called themselves the Neo Shuffle Alliance, on account of piloting custom gunpla built by combining the Shuffle Alliance gundams with other sets. Their top fighter was named Vincent V. Seiei, and yes, he does have the same last name as Setsuna. He pilots the 00 Heartful, a Shuffle Heart Gundam with the Dual GN Drive system and GN sword bits of the Qan[T], alongside other modifications I probably don't know of, and I couldn't find much on his teammates, most stuff on the group focused on him. Anyway, the Zeon High Council weren't having luck against the Neo Shuffle Alliance, so they decided to bypass them, head for Florida, and come back for payback when they have better fighters. So far, they have a hold everywhere above Orlando, but we in the AUF have stopped them from going further. Hopefully they will give up and move on, but I doubt this is the last we will see of them. Now then, with that explanation out of the way, let's get into what will happen for you guys now that you are part of the AUF." Mathias pushed off his work table and stood before Adrian and Rose. "First off, we need to decide on a faction to represent within the AUF. You can join an existing faction, or you can represent a new one. Since we are a team, how about we start a new one?" Upon seeing Adrian and Rose nod, Mathias began to think. "Alright, the only faction off the top of my head that has no representatives amongst the AUF is Tekkadan. So, shall we form the AUF branch of Tekkadan?" Once more, Adrian and Rose nodded. "Excellent! I will be the leader of the faction, given that I'm the highest ranked member, but that really won't be important since there are only three members. With that taken care of, the next order of business is uniforms. Each faction has their own official outfits worn during AUF events, though you can wear them whenever you like outside of them. These outfits generally resemble the uniforms of the faction they represent, though you can add your own flair. My mom is friends with the owner of a nearby clothing store, and they are our main source for our uniforms. I'll give you the address and you can head there to drop off your own designs when you have them. Now then, I'd say this has been an action-packed day, and tomorrow is the school tournament, so how about we head home and rest. Besides," Mathias turned to look at the Fullbody Gundam, "I have something to take care of." Adrian and Rose stood up and headed for the door, but Rose hung behind. "Is there something you need Rose?"

"Yeah. Do you have any recommendations on how to upgrade my gunpla? I need some more ranged combat."

"Well, as I said back during our first team battle, the 00 series have excellent balanced designs. From your fighting style, I would suggest either the Susanowo or one of Setsuna's. The Exia and 00 variants are both well built gundams with a focus for high speed combat like the way you fight, and so is the Susanowo, so perhaps a mix build of those would do well for you. Truthfully, I'd suggest asking either Alice or Dolohov. They are both very good at designing gunpla based on varying styles. I'm not saying that I'm not, but I put in a lot of time and focus into my designs, and if you want it ready for the school tournament, you'd be better off asking one of them. And before you point out that the Tri-X was done in less than a day, I have various paces. The Tri-X was a spur-of-the-moment build, but normally I will spend weeks, even months just on drawing up blueprints, custom making the pieces, building the gunpla, coding the various systems, and working out all bugs and glitches. They will get you just as good results in a quicker time. I like to get things just perfect."

Rose thought it over before nodding. "Alright, I'll talk to Dolohov, then check with Alice. Thanks for the advice!" Rose then rushed out of the room to find Dolohov. Mathias sniggered before turning to the Fullbody Gundam.

"Now then, you are in much better condition than the others. Let's get you with your brothers." Mathias picked up the Fullbody and opened the bottom cupboards to reveal an entire display case. The uniqueness of this case was that all the gunpla were in extreme disrepair, some held together by glue and wires and others missing parts completely. Mathias opened the case and placed the Fullbody next to a mixed build of the Exia and Epyon that was heavily damaged, the chest being glued together, the left arm held on by some wires, and the entire thing on a stand because the lower half was missing. Mathias then closed the case and wiped off the dusty plaque which read 'The many gunpla of Alan Hawk'. Mathias then closed the cupboard and pulled out his sketchbook, determined to design a new outfit for his place in the AUF and made before the tournament. Mathias smiled as he began drawing. He always was a fan of Orga Itsuka from IBO.

* * *

 **And that's a wrap! This chapter is one I had planned for a while. Like I said at the top, this is the end of arc 1 of this story, the Team Formation/Mathias Arc. Next arc is gonna be the school tournament and the opening half of the state competition as well as backstory on Rose. Each arc is gonna focus mainly on one member of the group, introducing their story and resolving something about them. I can't wait to get started, especially the half with the state tournament will feature the full rival team, and Rose's rival plays a big part with her. I won't say anymore because ~spoilers~! I hope you liked the musical suggestion in this chapter. I just couldn't help but think of that particular scene from G Gundam while writing that segment, and listening to it just gives that extra oomph. I don't think I will be doing stuff like that often, but I will make sure that when I do so, the music is perfect for that scene, at least in my opinion. Also, I hope some of you were touched at the ending scene. While Alan has no care for gunpla outside of victory, Mathias believes gunpla must be cared for. As such, whenever Alan abandons the gunpla after losing or drawing in one of his battles against Mathias, Mathias will take the gunpla and repair it as best he can to display it as a sort of memorial. Now then, let's get onto the references.**

 **(1) This is direct reference to the first episode of Gundam Build Fighters: Battlogue, where Tatsuya Yuuki and Allan Adams have their gunpla show off a new feature of the battle systems: AI pilots based off the characters of Gundam.**

 **(2) Yes, Mathias's parents do battle, and they pilot paired gunpla. The Adam and Lilith are named after a little unknown bit of trivia. There are some variants of the Bible that have the first humans being Adam and Lilith, both made from God. However, Lilith proved unwilling to act subservient to Adam and left, and then Eve was made from Adam to act as the lesser sex. Just another example of how the older cultures justified their sexism and misogyny.**

 **(3) This is done on another trivia from Christianity. Lilith is also sometimes used in media as the name for the queen of Succubi, originally dream demons that were turned into sex demons. The white and gold backpack with the healing Karels represent Lilith's 'good' human side, while Hannah has a second backpack painted black and red to represent the 'evil' demon side of Lilith, and while it also has Karels, those ones are built for combat, and pretty much act like piranhas, tearing the enemy to shreds. Normally she uses the healing one, but trust me, Hannah has steel in her, I only gave you a taste with her comment to Mathias in the big match. Michael would not have married her otherwise.**

 **(4) I have been on a Blazblue binge, that is my only justification here. The three gunpla here, in order of appearance, represent Hakumen, Terumi, and Susanooh. The third member of that particular team is a GN sword bit focused one based on Nu-13. When those three combine it's the Black Beast, made from the Plavsky particles, that comes into play.**

 **(5) For those that don't know what these names reference, look up Swagger vs Bear Glove. Hilarious commercials.**

 **And that's it for the references! On to the appearing gunpla in this chapter. None of the newly introduced mix gunpla are buildable to my knowledge, but the straight build ones are if they actually have sets. Before I head off, let's give a big shoutout to jmasta32 with his OC submission, the first one of the story! Yes, Vincent V. Seiei (V is short for Valentine) and the 00 Heartful are the creations of jmasta32. Sorry J, but he is only a cameo here, but he will be quite the fun character to write out for nationals! Yes I have plans to go all the way to nationals, but the world tournament will be in a sequel story. That's right, I'm planning that far ahead people! Granted, I only have an outline for the future, but this will be a big story. And don't forget, I'm still accepting OCs, this will stay true all the way to nationals. After the nationals start, I will be closing OC submissions for Shining Jewels of America, and will instead be opening submissions for the sequel. The Japanese team will of course be Team Try Fighters, so no submission of characters from Japan unless given a justifiable excuse. Outside of that, anything goes! Welp, that's all I have to say folks, so I'll be seeing you guys in the next chapter! JA NE!**


	5. Dark Past Unearthed, A Storm Brews!

**8-Bit Thief bringing you the complete chapter 5 of Shining Jewels of America! Hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Rose, Adrian, and Mathias stood in the hallway outside their school's gym alongside the 19 other competing teams. The newly formed 'Team Tekkadan', as they had signed on the entrance sheet, had each had a change in outfit to fit this big step up in life. After all, if they won, they would be entered into the state tournament, and potentially the Nationals, and that was quite the big deal. Rose had shifted from her usual Zeon hoodie to a black leather jacket, and underneath was a t-shirt styled like Setsuna's pilot suit. Matching pants to the t-shirt were tucked into black combat boots and her usual frizzy hair was tied back into a ponytail. Adrian wore a brown shirt tucked into black jeans, a pair of tennis shoes on as his glasses glinted in the fluorescent light. Mathias chose a more dramatic flare for his new wardrobe. Khaki shorts and a crossbone emblazoned gray t-shirt was covered by a jacket similar to Orga from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans hanging off him like a cape. On the back was the shooting star emblem of the AUF. A pair of sunglasses were soon pushed up from his eyes as he raked his vision across the various teams around them.

"Quite the turnout, huh? This tournament is gonna be fun! Too bad none of these guys stand a chance against us."

"It would be wise not to be too overconfident Mathias, after all, such a thing is an advantage only to our enemies." was Adrian's calm response.

"Calm down Adrian! Don't forget, we haven't lost a single match as team!"

"Need I remind you that we only fought as a true team in one battle, and it was the war against the High Council."

Mathias sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "True, but that doesn't change the fact we have a perfect win record as a team."

"Alright students, calm down." came the voice of professor Culver, the teacher in charge of the Gunpla club, who had just opened the doors to the gymnasium. Unfortunately, he was completely drowned out by the crowd. "Students, I said calm down. Calm down. ...OI, I said shut up!" Unfortunately, Culver's temper ran high, and he does not like being ignored. With the students' attention now on him, he took a moment to calm down himself. "Now that I have your attention, we can get the school tournament underway." The professor then gestured up to the large monitor in the gymnasium, which displayed a tournament bracket that had the various names of the teams appearing at random. "If you look at the monitor, our randomizer will decide the order of teams." The randomizer finally stopped and professor Culver took note of the names. "Alright, the order is set, let the first round of the OIA School Tournament begin!"

The teams shuffled into the gymnasium and began congregating towards the four unit battle systems where a teacher was waiting to referee the match. As the bracket system had several byes, the non-fighting teams took to the bleachers to watch the various fights.

* * *

Mathias, Adrian, and Rose stood opposite to a team of students wearing the school uniform. All three had a cocky smirk on their faces while a teacher approached the battle system, an act that was repeated for every other system in the room.

"Alright," the teacher stated, "I am positive you all know this already, but the rules of these matches are standard tournament rules. The match will be 3-on-3, and the fight will last for fifteen minutes. Should all members of a team be defeated, the other team wins. In the event of a time-out, the team with most members still in will win. In the event of a draw or both teams have the same number of members at the end, both teams will select a representative for a sudden death match. The sudden death match will last until one of the fighters surrenders or is incapable of continuing in the fight. Are these rules understood?" Both teams nodded their heads and the teacher activated the battle system. "Then let the first round match between team Tekkadan and team Terror Firma begin."

"Gunpla battle, combat mode, startup. Model damage level, set to B. Please set your GP Base."

The two teams set their GP Bases as team Terror Firma developed cocky smirks. "I hope you haven't gotten comfortable, because you lot will be heading home after this match!" the leader said.

The man to his right perked up. "Yeah, when it comes to land and sea, no one can beat us!"

"Beginning Plavsky particle dispersal. Field 1, space. Please set your gunpla." Immediately the three members of Terror Firma paled as the stage was formed, showing a wide expanse of space, the Axis meteor high at the top of the stage with Earth at the bottom.

Mathias smirked at the reaction as he set his gunpla onto the battle system. "Land and sea, huh? I guess by your reactions you aren't that good in the air and space, am I right?"

The leader of Terror Firma shook himself off at Mathias's taunt and regained his cocky smirk, though anyone could tell it was fake. "Nonsense! Terror Firma is ready for anything!" So saying, he pulled out a navy blue modified Z'Gok, sporting a modified backpack with four turbines and a single booster that Mathias could tell was meant as a jump jet rather than sustained flight. The head unit had twice the number of missile tubes and a trio of missile tubes replaced the clawed hands. Finally, a pair of missile pods were attached to the legs, and Mathias would bet that the payload was surface-to-air missiles that could be fired underwater. All in all, Mathias determined it was designed primarily for aquatic combat, and stayed away from the enemy with its mobility while using its missiles to confuse the enemy as to its location and had little to no close combat capability.

His teammates placed their gunplas on the system with some hesitation, revealing a Capule and an Aqua GM. Both Mathias and Adrian instantly spotted near invisible changes in their designs, recognizing that these were not straight builds. Mathias remembered that both mobile suits suffered from issues in the series, especially in terms of power source, and figured those were the changes. Adrian and Rose followed up with their gunplas, and Mathias immediately turned his attention to Rose's new gunpla.

She had clearly taken his advice to heart, as her new gunpla was a mix of the Susanowo and 00 Qan[T]. The entire lower half was built out of the susanowo, its GN Tau Drives having been modified into a true twin GN Drive system and repainted to match the Qan[T]. The twin katanas of the Susanowo were combined and holstered on the back of its waist. The upper body was all Qan[T], its GN sword in hand in sword mode while its sword bit covered shield was in place over its left shoulder. Mathias nodded in silent appreciation of the design. 'Alice and Dolohov do good work.' he thought.

"Battle start."

No more time to examine gunplas. "Mathias Winns, Tri-X Gundam, ready to sortie!"

"Adrian Brown, Deathscythe EW Variant, launching."

"Rose Fayre, Tempest Gundam, let's fight!"

"Team Terror Firma, engaging the enemy!"

As the two teams entered the field, Mathias stopped his gundam, spotting the enemies. The Z'Gok was using its jump jet to maneuver while dragging the Aqua GM by its anchor, and the Capule was in its mobile armor form to use its aquatic jets to move around. Mathias smirked and opened coms with Adrian and Rose.

"Hey guys, these guys are completely out of their league. Specialization is fine, but only when you have something or someone to balance out. These guys over specialized in the same path. This is gonna be a slaughter. Hey Rose, how about you show us what your Tempest Gundam can do? Think you can handle all three of them by yourself?"

Rose grinned before gunning towards team Terror Firma. "Child's play."

The leader of Terror Firma spotted the Tempest Gundam approaching and swung the anchor line in his hand, launching the Aqua GM towards Rose, its beam picks in hand. The Aqua GM then used its boosters to launch itself even faster at the Tempest Gundam. Rose stopped and launched the GN sword bits, the bits circling around her gundam. As the Aqua GM approached, two bits flew straight up and knocked the GM's beam picks out of the way, allowing the remaining four bits to launch forward and impale the GM. As the GM exploded, the bits launched out of the smoke cloud, three each heading towards the two remaining opponents. The Capule was immediately overwhelmed by the bits, but the Z'Gok used its jump jet to evade, launching missiles while the Capule detonated. Immediately the bits swarmed around and destroyed the missiles, but the sheer amount meant some slipped past. Rose shifted her GN blade to gun mode and shot down several before shifting it back to sword mode to slice the remaining ones in half. The bits flew back to the Tempest Gundam and connected to its GN blade as it launched forward, slicing through the smoke left behind by the missiles, and the Z'Gok.

"Battle ended."

"Team Terror Firma has been eliminated. Team Tekkadan advances."

As team Terror Firma leaves, grumbling about upgrading their gunpla for a rematch, Mathias, Adrian, and Rose move to the bleachers to watch the remaining fights, having finished so quickly.

* * *

Team Tekkadan approached the battle system to begin round two of the tournament, only to have a rather bad reaction with the other team.

"You look familiar. Wait a second, you're the bitch that kept cock-blocking me!" The apparent leader pointed an accusing finger at Rose, who merely smirked.

"Hey Max, long time no see. How is Claire anyway?"

The now named Max merely sent a glare at Rose before smirking as well. "Still going on and on about her delinquent friend. I keep telling her to take her mind off a girl most likely in prison and focus on important matters, like the future of her family, but she refuses to listen. Honestly, if I didn't know how innocent she was, I would have thought she was getting around with the wrong sorts, or at least, more than she already has."

Rose growled for a moment before calming down. "You talk about the wrong sort, but I'm pretty sure I've seen Tweedledee and Tweedledum next to you on the streets before."

Max gestured to the thuggish looking twins next to him. "Oh, you mean Ralph and Felix? They are my help. After all, the best way to handle street rats is with another street rat."

"Alright, enough talk, let's get started on the next round. Team Tekkadan versus Team Ez-8, begin!" The teacher refereeing cut in, starting up the battle system at the same time.

"Gunpla battle, combat mode, startup. Model damage level, set to B. Please set your GP Base. Beginning Plavsky particle dispersal. Field 5, city. Please set your gunpla."

The six fighters placed their GP Bases and gunpla as the battlefield formed. Team Tekkadan recognized it as the city the MS 08th team fought Norris Packard. However, their attention quickly shifted to the enemy gunpla. Ralph and Felix were both piloting identical Gouf Customs that were painted gold, but otherwise were the same as Norris Packard's, an ironic turn of events given the stage. Maxwell's however was an improved gold colored Ez-8 Gundam, featuring a modified backpack with two wing-like boosters, the shield was modified with a beam launcher underneath, and several small containers lined the skirt armor and legs.

"Battle start."

"Mathias Winns, Tri-X Gundam, ready to sortie!"

"Rose Fayre, Tempest Gundam, let's fight!"

"Adrian Brown, Deathscythe EW Variant, launching."

"Maxwell Payne, Ez-8 Burner, let's go!"

The two teammates of Maxwell were silent as the six fighters entered the battlefield.

"Alright you two, I want that bitch for myself, so make sure her teammates don't interfere."

The two Gouf pilots nodded with a grunt and charged forward at Mathias and Adrian while Maxwell fired the beam cannon on his shield. The Tempest Gundam jumped up to dodge the shot and the Ez-8 Burner followed, leaving the Tri-X, Deathscythe, and Gouf Customs on the ground.

"I can already tell you guys are small fry, but I want to at least have some fun." Mathias pressed a button and the entire satellite cannon backpack disengaged from the Tri-X. The Tri-X rolled its shoulders as if working out kinks before drawing its crossbone swords, beam blades igniting. "This should make things more fair." The Tri-X charged forward while the Deathsycthe EW Variant merely vanished in place.

* * *

The Ez-8 Burner fired another beam from its shield as it pulled a beam saber from one of the containers in its skirt armor. The Tempest Gundam charged forward, dodging the beam as its GN blade clashed with the Ez-8 Burner's beam saber.

"You don't stand a chance! My gunpla is leagues above yours! After all, I deserve the best money can buy!"

Rose disengaged from the clash, shifting the GN blade to gun mode and shooting the beam saber out of the Ez-8 Burner's hand. "Design means nothing without the skill to back it up! So put up or shut up Max!" The Tempest Gundam charged forward again, but the Ez-8 Burner ducked under and dived into the city. "Oh no you don't, get back here and fight!"

The Tempest Gundam landed and moved to chase only to be blocked by a hole covered sphere that launched straight up to chest level from the street. Immediately the sphere fired out beams from the numerous holes on its surface, but the split-second of its appearance was enough time for Rose to position her shield to block it, the beams dispersing on the special anti-beam particle coating. The Tempest Gundam reached out and crushed the sphere when it stopped firing before tossing it aside, heading towards the intersection ahead. Rose spotted a slight distortion on the ground and sent the Tempest Gundam into a flying tackle, evading a beam spike trap that decloaked as she passed over it. Looking to the left, Rose saw the Ez-8 Burner retreating further.

"Stop running you damn coward!"

Rose rounded the corner and instantly three things registered to her sight. The first was that the Ez-8 Burner was cornered in a cul de sac, the second was that it's shield was now mounted on a tripod like a turret, and the third thing was that the beam cannon on said shield was charging up to fire.

"Take this bitch!"

Rose had only a moment to once more move her shield into place before the Tempest Gundam was consumed by the massive beam the Ez-8 Burner's shield fired due to its charge time. This was compounded by the Ez-8 Burner throwing several beam resistant grenades from its back skirt containers, which all detonated on the Tempest Gundam's location. After half a minute, the shield beam cannon finally overheated and shut down, leaving a dust cloud at the Tempest Gundam's location.

"Ha, I knew that, no matter how good her gunpla looked, it was no match for mine! Then again, I'm not surprised. After all, money can open so many avenues she could never have. Now I should check in on my teammates, and help them finish off the-"

Maxwell was cut off as a single beam shot launched from the dust cloud and pierced the shield mounted beam cannon, detonating it. Maxwell slowly turned to look as the dust settled, revealing the Tempest Gundam. Outside of a few scuff marks on its shield, it was completely unharmed from the Ez-8 Burner's onslaught.

"No, no way. That's not possible. That's not possible!" The Ez-8 Burner stumbled backwards under its pilot's shock, tripping over a fragment of its shield and landing seated against a building.

Maxwell's panic became worse as the Deathscythe EW Variant and the Tri-X, it's backpack reattached, landed next to the Tempest Gundam. "Wow Rose, this guy is still active? Didn't think he would be so tenacious. His teammates went down way too quickly, and I even gave them a handicap! How about we wrap this match up?"

Rose said nothing to Mathias's comment, and moved to be directly in front of the Ez-8 Burner. The Tempest Gundam's fist flew out in a blur to punch a hole through the Ez-8 Burner's chest, causing it to detonate right in front of it.

"Battle ended."

"Team Ez-8 has been eliminated. Team Tekkadan advances."

* * *

Team Tekkadan retrieved their gunplas and headed to the bleachers to wait out the remainder of the second round. Mathias leaned back as he pushed his sunglasses down over his eyes. "Is it just me, or are we getting the easy opponents? I mean, Terror Firma was over-specialized and this time our opponents had no skill whatsoever. I hope next round we fight someone tough." Mathias peaked from under his glasses before pointing towards one of the active battle stations. "Those guys look like a challenge."

The battle Mathias was referring to was between one team using the three Unicorn variants while the other team was using a Gundam Spiegel, Shuffle Joker, and an F91. The three Unicorns were firing at their opponents, but they would either dodge or simply disperse into smoke and reappear closer. Finally, the F91 closed in on the Unicorn Banshee Norn and launched it upwards where it was intercepted by beam chains from the Shuffle Joker that tore it apart. Then the Gundam Spiegel appeared in between the Unicorn and Unicorn Phenex and spun before vanishing and reappearing where it originally started. The Shuffle Joker and F91 also faded out of existence only to appear next to the Gundam Spiegel. The two Unicorns froze before falling to pieces.

"Battle ended."

"Team Unicorn has been eliminated. Team Vision advances."

Mathias, Rose, and Adrian stared at the sudden results of the fight.

"What the? What was that? That ending part, that wasn't high speed movement. There would have been afterimages, especially for the F91."

"I don't know Mathias. I didn't see them move either outside of the Shuffle Joker and F91 dodging the beam shots. It was almost like they were not even there."

"But that would make them like ghosts. Outside of afterimages, that isn't possible. This bears solving, we will most likely face them in the final round, if not the next match."

"They are in the second bracket, so they will be our final match up, if they do make it to the end."

Rose suddenly slammed a fist into her palm. "Who cares. If we face them, we'll beat them, simple as that. We can't lose, right?" Rose held out her fist to Mathias and Adrian

Mathias developed a smirk and pushed his own fist into Rose's. "Right, we're team Tekkadan, and more importantly, we are AUF. This tournament was decided the moment we signed up. The others just don't realize it."

Mathias and Rose looked at Adrian, who merely sighed and outstretched his own fist. "We shouldn't get too cocky. There are still two rounds left."

"You worry too much Adrian. We have this tournament in the bag!"

The three then sat back down to wait out the remaining fights, Mathias and Adrian contemplating the events of the fight they saw.

* * *

 **The plot thickens now that I have opened the way for Rose's backstory. It will be shelved because the school tournament is so short, but things will be explained in the gap before the state tourney. Hope you all liked the fights in this chapter, I am doing my best to keep matches exciting, but team Tekkadan is so far ahead that the rest of the school just doesn't match up, except that team at the end. Don't worry, next chapter my team will have to work to win. Also, a little announcement concerning my other story, Dr Patchwork and Mr Clank. Me and themadDrPatchwork are having some difficulty with that story. It was originally meant to be a reference melting pot for us with our characters before we decided to throw the references as actual multiverse travel. Unfortunately, our choice of using Undertale as a start is causing us issues by constraining us to the plot, which is cutting into our inspiration. So that story is gonna go on a bit of a hiatus until we can power our way through the UT arc. Afterwards we will avoid tying ourselves to any future plots when we jump to other places. This story also will go on a hiatus after next chapter so I can put my thoughts to the grindstone and build my plans for the state tournament. I have an outline and certain events, but it largely is just a blank slate, so I'm going to take time off to relax my mind from juggling story chapters and work on that.** **But enough of this depressing stuff. I will see you guys in the next chapter! JA NE!**


	6. Ultimate Technique, A Rising Flurry!

**Guess who's back?! That's right, I'm back! Oh man this feels so good, posting a new chapter. My hiatus is over, I have recovered from the fire, though I think my creativity may have taken a slight hit, and I'm continuing my wonderful stories. However, don't be expecting the next chapter for Dr Patchwork and Mr Clank anytime soon. Me and my colleagues are still working on it, and we are not sure if you all will like our plan for it. We won't change it, as we agree it's the best we can do in the current situation, but we are prepared for some flak. But enough about that, you all are here for some Gundam Battles. So say it with me everybody! Gundam fight, ready, GO!**

* * *

Mathias launched the Tri-X Gundam backwards to dodge an "Orthros" beam cannon shot from his opponent, a fire patterned Gunner Zaku Warrior, before charging forward to clash beam blade against beam tomahawk. The Tempest Gundam flipped over the two, GN sword bits firing off, only to be parried by the beam sword of a fire patterned Gouf Ignited, one of the bits being deflected a second time by the Deathscythe EW Variant's shield, which was then turned to intercept the Falx G7 beam axe of his opponent, a fire patterned Slash Zaku Warrior.

"This is the best fight so far! Not hard to say given this is my second fight and the last was pathetic, but it's still awesome to actually have competition!"

"Good to hear Mathias, but focus on the battle."

"You really need to lighten up Adrian!"

"He's right Mathias! These guys are tough, one wrong move and you're toast!"

"OI! Don't forget who you're talking to! Like hell am I gonna let someone get the drop on me, a master of traps and ambush!" The Tri-X engaged its solar panels before turning the panels to reflect the bright sun of the desert stage they were fighting on. The Gunner Zaku Warrior stalled as its pilot was blinded, and Mathias took the chance to slice the enemy's beam cannon in half. The Gunner Zaku Warrior tossed aside the beam cannon and used the ensuing explosion to mask a shoulder charge at the Tri-X. The shoulder-mounted shield slammed into the Tri-X's chest, causing it to drop its beam blade, and the two quickly disappeared in a sudden sandstorm caused by the two moving across the desert.

"Why am I not surprised he got caught off guard after saying that." Rose sweatdropped before sending her gunpla into a dive to evade the Gouf Ignited's beam sword, her own GN blade swinging upwards. She then engaged her thrusters to launch into a rising slash, causing a slight gash as the Gouf Ignited dodged backwards. The Gouf Ignited then fired a burst from its twin arm-mounted 'draupnir' 4-barrel beam guns, darting off in the opposite direction of the Tri-X and Gunner Zaku. Rose sliced through the beams with her GN blade in an impressive display of reaction speed and dexterity and immediately pursued the Gouf Ignited, GN sword bits reattaching to her shield as she flew off.

Adrian noted the disappearance of his two teammates before focusing back on his opponent. The Deathscythe moved its scythe to catch an overhead swing under the axe beam emitter with the shaft before twisting its arms so the beam axe was pushed to its left side before retaliating with a upwards diagonal slash. The Slash Zaku Warrior jumped back before charging forward into a spinning horizontal slash. Adrian jumped over the attack and drew a beam pistol, firing away at the Zaku below him. Using its thrusters, the Slash Zaku Warrior launched itself up, ignoring the beam shots and swinging its beam axe upwards to catch the Deathscythe. The Deathscythe positioned its scythe to block, only for its weapon to be cut in half and the gundam drop kicked to the ground.

Adrian quickly turned his impromptu fall into a rough landing before lunging forward to evade the Slash Zaku Warrior swinging its beam axe down like an executioner. Adrian activated the beam blade in his right shield and pushed his gundam to the left, swinging out and severing the head of the beam axe as he dodged. Upon landing, he swung his left shield up to deflect the beam axe shaft being used as an impromptu throwing spear. The Deathscythe moved to fire its beam pistol only to dodge again, the front half of the pistol sliced off by the Slash Zaku throwing its stored beam tomahawk. The Slash Zaku then performed a shoulder charge that Adrian evaded, slicing off the Zaku's shoulder-mounted shield while it used momentum to grab its beam tomahawk while gaining distance.

The two fighters then stood facing each other, tense and waiting for the other to move. Adrian activated the beam blade in his left shield and triggered his cloaking system. The Slash Zaku stayed in place, monoeye darting around, and in a scenario oddly similar to Adrian's fight against Erina, spun and blocked Adrian's beam blade with its beam tomahawk as he decloaked. Pushing forward, the Slash Zaku pushed the shield down and swung for the Deathscythe EW Variant's chest. Adrian moved his gundam backwards, cloaking again before circling the enemy invisibly. He noticed his opponent was tracking his movements somehow, but wasn't looking directly at him, which eliminated the possibility of thermal vision like before. Determined to figure this out, Adrian changed directions before charging forward, decloaking as he did so. The Slash Zaku stumbled as the Deathscythe appeared before it, not realizing the change, but swung his tomahawk, deflecting the beam blade. Now up close, Adrian drew his second beam pistol and fired at the Slash Zaku. Pot marks and holes peppered the chest of the Slash Zaku, but it quickly disengaged before severe damage occurred. Adrian once again cloaked, but this time did not move. He observed the Slash Zaku glance around at the ground, before finally returning to his location. Adrian decloaked on realizing the opponent's trick, opening a com.

"Footprints."

His opponent, a mousy looking man, raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"

"You're following my footprints, aren't you. That's how you tracked my movements while I was cloaked."

"It's a trick I learned some time ago. Cloaking hides you from sight, but it doesn't hide the evidence of your position. Most just don't think to look for those clues."

"I thank you for showing me this, I'll be sure to rectify this issue with my next model."

"You're welcome, but you should thank me after the fight." The Slash Zaku raised its tomahawk as the com closed, ready to continue the fight. Adrian charged forward, forgoing his cloak as useless and launching a flurry of swipes with his shields, the beam blades either dodged or deflected by his opponent. This clash went on for some time as, despite Adrian having the advantage of twin weapons, his opponent was skilled enough to weather the barrage of attacks with minimal damage, waiting for an opening to counter. Suddenly, twin lights exploded across the battlefield. Towards the left side of the battle a pillar of blue light blasted upwards while from the right, a dome of pinkish-red light expanded before collapsing upon itself.

"What the fuck?!"

Capitalizing upon the distraction, Adrian swiped an X at his off-guard opponent, splitting the Slash Zaku in four. He then paused as the enemy blew up before heading in the direction of the dome, assuming that the pillar of light was Mathias's doing.

* * *

The Tri-X locked its fists together and slammed down on the head of the Gunner Zaku, denting it and pushing the Tri-X up enough to use its jets to launch free of the shoulder charge. Reaching down to its left waist-mounted crossbone beam weapon, the Tri-X engaged its thrusters to send it into a slight spin, landing in a kneeling position, right hand resting on the desert sand and left arm extending backwards, beam blade igniting from the end of its weapon as it watched its opponent continue moving. The Gunner Zaku twisted around, gliding backwards as it reached back and grabbed its beam assault rifle, releasing a spray of beam shots at the Tri-X. Mathias, ready for any attack, charged forward, beam blade intercepting and dispersing each shot. Watching its assault be negated, the Gunner Zaku drew its beam tomahawk and locked it with the Tri-X's beam sword, gun raised to fire at its now immobile target. With a quick spin, the Tri-X disengaged, beam shots grazing its shoulder armor as its weapon shifted to beam gun mode, a retort of beam fire screaming towards the Gunner Zaku. Flipping backwards behind a sand dune, the Gunner Zaku returned fire, the two mobile suits engaging in a firefight as they used their environment and equipment to evade or block the other's shots.

During a pause while both were huddled behind barriers, Mathias noticed his satellite system was fully charged, bordering into its overload state. "Welp, guess it's time to end this." Shifting his weapon to beam sword mode, he gripped it by its crossbone shaped emitter before leaping out of cover, flinging it like a spear. The Gunner Zaku popped out of cover to fire, only for the beam sword to stab into its beam rifle. Tossing it forwards, the Gunner Zaku prepared to use the smokescreen of the weapon's detonation to charge forward again, only to be caught off-guard as the Tri-X leapt through the smoke, arms spread wide with its left hand above its head and right hand by its waist. Using the grapple/CQC focused style he once used for close combat with the Heavyarms Kai Desert Recon, Mathias latched onto the Gunner Zaku's right arm. Lowering its center mass, the Tri-X pulled its enemy downwards before hooking its right leg out, knocking its foe's feet off the ground. With the opponent now airborne and off balance, the Tri-X stamped the ground with its right foot, using it as leverage to spin and throw its enemy upwards as its twin satellite cannons locked onto its shoulders while its chest-mounted skull opened to reveal a third. "Tri-X satellite cannon system, triple burst mode, FIRE!"

With that declaration, a pillar of blue particles erupted from the three satellite cannons of the Tri-X, engulfing the Gunner Zaku in its entirety. The beam petered out to reveal nothing, the enemy having been vaporized. The satellite cannons locked back into place, vents opening to release decent amounts of steam. While the overheat was nowhere near the amount of a full burst, three satellite cannons were still a rather large amount of power in a small space. Out of the corner of his eye, Mathias spotted a shrinking dome of pinkish-red particles. "Huh, wonder what's going on over there." Mathias launched the Tri-X into the air, flying towards the now disappearing particle dome.

* * *

The Gouf Ignited continued its retreat, firing off shots from its arms, before suddenly reversing to charge directly at the incoming Tempest Gundam with an overhead swing. The Tempest Gundam sliced the beam shots out of the air before blocking the overhead swing, GN sword bits detaching to circle around the Gouf Ignited. Right before the GN bits launched forward to skewer the Gouf Ignited, it jumped straight up before launching itself forwards, beam sword jutting forward in an attempt to stab the Tempest Gundam. The Tempest Gundam parried the beam sword and launched a series of aggressive slashes, GN sword bits moving to either follow behind the GN sword or to strike in alternate angles. Surprisingly, the pilot of the Gouf Ignited was able to counteract this deadly fighting style, evading or parrying the constant attacks from all directions. One GN sword bit launched itself at the Gouf Ignited's back, only for the opponent to duck under at the last second. Unprepared for the sudden evasion, Rose was unable to stop the GN sword bit from hitting her GN sword, sending it flying. The Gouf Ignited capitalized on this with a sudden slash, carving a large gouge on the Tempest Gundam's chest, though not deep enough to achieve victory. The Tempest Gundam made a quick backstep and moved to grab its secondary GN swords, only for two heat whips to wrap around its body, pinning its arms. A surge of electricity stopped Rose from busting free as her gundam locked up, and, to her surprise, her active GN sword bits fell to the desert sand, powerless.

"Surprised?" the pudgy man that was her opponent asked. "Then allow me to explain. My heat whips generate a special electrical/particle field. The electricity causes all systems to lock up, while the particle field disrupts all particle output from your gundam. Right now it just means you can't move or use your bits, but so long as my field stays stronger than your output, eventually it will disrupt the particle flow to the point your systems shut down and you will be eliminated. And don't try to slip out with the trans-am. I made a built-in reactor to keep my system's output at a level that overpowers most systems."

Rose merely smirked at the explanation. "Sorry, but I'm the kind of person that needs to see to believe. Trans-am!" The twin GN drives of the Qan[T] half of the Tempest Gundam whirred to life, sending the Tempest Gundam into a red glow.

 **(Start playing Kamen Rider Kiva OST-Wake Up (advise looping for maximum effect))**

Unknown to both Rose and her opponent, the upgraded twin drives of the Susanowo she had silently whirred to life as well, operating in a capacity similar to GN condensers by recycling excess GN particles from the trans-am. The red glow suddenly turned a more pinkish-red before suddenly expanding outwards. The heat whips restraining the Tempest Gundam became shredded as hundreds of thousands of GN particles tore through them. The Gouf Ignited leapt away from the expanding particle dome, but grazed the edge before it stopped, revealing the front of the Gouf Ignited looking like its front had been aggressively attacked by sandpaper, scratches coating every spot that touched the dome. The dome shrank until it formed a thin coat covering the Tempest Gundam. The Tempest Gundam seemed to shift in place for a moment, and then vanished, sand shooting up into the air. At the exact moment the Tempest Gundam vanished, a chunk of left shoulder armor was cleanly sliced off the Gouf Ignited. The GN particle coated Tempest Gundam, holding its twin GN blades, appeared behind the Gouf Ignited before vanishing again in a burst of sand being carried towards the Gouf Ignited. This time the Gouf Ignited's right arm was removed. Again and again the Tempest Gundam appeared only to vanish an instant later, and each time another chunk of the Gouf Ignited was removed. The pattern began to repeat so fast that the clouds of sand created by the constant movement began swirling around into a localized sand storm from the sheer wind current the Tempest Gundam was generating.

 **(End OST if it isn't already over)**

The Tri-X and Deathscythe EW Variant arrived to find the sandstorm raging.

"What the heck is going on!?" Mathias yelled over the sandstorm.

"I think we are about to find out." was Adrian's calm reply, noticing the sandstorm was slowing down.

The Tempest Gundam came to a stop before Rose's teammates, its trans-am fading as the particles disintegrated, the localized sandstorm blowing away to reveal the Gouf Ignited as a pile of pieces.

"Battle ended."

"Team Firebrand is eliminated. Team Tekkadan advances. There will be a five minute break before the final match."

* * *

"So what happened with your fight Rose?" Mathias asked as he fiddled with the Tri-X Gundam's forearms while his teammates repaired their gunpla from the damage they sustained in the fight against team Flamvell.

"I don't know. I just activated the trans-am, and then that happened. I'm lucky I was able to barely control it. I was scared I was gonna DQ myself by accident with every movement."

Adrian pulled out his phone and an adaptable cable. "Mind if I take a look at your GP Base?" Rose passed him the GP Base and he hooked it up to his phone before opening an app, sending a wall of code scrawling across it. He soon stopped it and highlighted a series of lines. "This looks like the coding pertaining to trans-am, but there's a lot more than usual. I can't make much out."

"Let me have a look." Mathias sidled over to glance at the coding before grabbing it to take a better look. "This looks like Alice's work. Seems she decided to use you as a guinea pig Rose. She rigged your GN drives to activate together, though in various methods. If you don't activate both, the non-selected one will act as a condenser, adding some effects to the trans-am. Which set did you use?"

"The Qan[T] set."

"That's the speed variant. The GN particles are given a damaging aura from the Susanowo set, as well as cutting through the stage particle fields to boost movement. I imagine it would be even stronger if you used the quantum trans-am. The Susanowo uses a combat variant. The damaging aura is amplified by the Qan[T]'s GN drives, and the bit system allows for ranged combat with swarms of GN particles as if you had thousands of sword bits, but the speed boost is only slightly higher than a normal trans-am. Triggering both looks like its a combination of the two, but I wouldn't advise using it. The sheer particle output would probably make the damage indiscriminate, wrecking your gunpla along with your opponent's without a high amount of particles to serve as a buffer, especially if you did it with the quantum trans-am, and that excludes the fact there is a small chance the GN drives would sync well enough to do so in the first place. I'll work with Adrian to up the synchronization rates after the tournament." Mathias closed the app and disconnected Rose's GP Base from Adrian's phone before passing them back to their respective owners and returned to working on the Tri-X Gundam's forearms. "But right now, let's focus on the fight to come. Take a look at the brackets." Adrian and Rose looked to the screen to see the final round matchup: Team Tekkadan vs Team Vision. "We are up against those ghost guys. Make whatever upgrades you can. I know I said we are gonna win, but these guys are something I've never seen, and that's worrying. We'll need every advantage we can get."

Adrian and Rose looked towards Mathias, before sharing a glance and turning back to their gunpla, prepping for the upcoming fight.

* * *

While both teams were prepping for the final round, the teachers had used the five minutes to position the battle systems so they were linked together. With the five minutes up, the two teams approached the battlefield. There was no pre-fight banter, no cocky shows of strength. Just grim determination to win.

"Let the final match of the OIA school tournament between teams Tekkadan and Vision begin."

"Gunpla battle, combat mode, startup. Model damage level, set to B. Please set your GP Base."

Both teams placed their GP Bases with absolute silence, the surrounding crowd, formed of teachers and some of the other tournament fighters, leaning forward in their seats.

"Beginning Plavsky particle dispersal. Field 3, forest. Please set your gunpla."

A massive forest formed as their battlefield. Rivers ran between the trees, combining to form a massive lake forming part of the rightmost edge. Several clearings dotted the map, but they barely broke up the swath of green. All six combatants placed their gunpla.

"Battle start."

Six gunpla launched into the battlefield, the only sound being their thrusters and the audience shifting in place in anticipation of the battle.

Mathias quickly opened his coms while his team flew over the forest. "Alright, we don't know anything about these guys outside the baseline capabilities of their gundams based on the shows. However, there is one thing I do know. Nothing survives an orbital strike. Try and get them herded to one of the clearings. I'm gonna show them why its called a satellite cannon." Having said that, Mathias split off from the group, heading straight up into the sky, satellite panels engaging all across the Tri-X's body.

Rose and Adrian looked at one another before flying forward and landing in a clearing large enough to hold two colosseums and still have room for several football fields. The moment they landed, several beam chains erupted from the ground and headed towards them.

The Tempest Gundam and Deathscythe EW Variant leapt over the chains, only for the Deathsycthe to move in front of the Tempest, wings folding closed as two beams splashed ineffectually against the Deathscythe's special anti-beam coating. Right after the wings unfolded, the Gundam Spiegel appeared before the Deathscythe, its twin blades folded forward to slice its opponent apart. The Tempest Gundam pushed the Deathscythe down in an improvised dodge of a double horizontal strike before using its back as a platform, spinning on its hand to kick the Spiegel aside. The kick whiffed through an illusion as the Spiegel reappeared on the other side of the clearing next to the now visible Shuffle Joker and F91.

"Well, looks like the band's all here. Let's start the music." Rose charged forward, sword bits trailing behind her as she raised her GN sword. She was immediately met with the beam sword of the F91. Rose smirked as the F91 prepared to evade the sword bits, only to be surprised as they shoot past towards the Shuffle Joker. GN sword clashed with beam blade while the Shuffle Joker extended its beam chains to counter the incoming sword bits. The Spiegel moved to assist the F91, only to dodge back as the Deathscythe EW Variant delivers an overhead swing with its scythe. An immediate twist of the handle sets the beam scythe into a horizontal spin as Adrian pushed forwards, catching the Spiegel's twin arm blades and flinging it aside.

For a solid minute the five fighters traded attacks that were either dodged or blocked. Finally the Tempest managed to grab the F91 and tossed it towards the Shuffle Joker before setting its sword bits at them. The sword bits sliced through them, only for Rose to look in shock as the F91 and Shuffle Joker stood back up with no damage. Rose was about to act when Mathias called in. "Drop what you're doing and hightail it outta there, I'm about to light that clearing up like a solar flare." Rose immediately pushed her gundam's thrusters at max and grabbed the Deathscythe EW Variant. The two just cleared the edge of the soon to be crater right before a pillar of blue light dropped down like the wrath of god.

* * *

After the full assault of Mathias's full burst mode ended, the Tri-X descended to stand in the center of the massive crater that was once a clearing, the Tempest Gundam and Deathscythe EW Variant joining it. "This doesn't make sense. There is no way they could have survived my full burst, so why isn't the match over?"

As if triggered by Mathias's words, several chains erupted from the ground, wrapping around the Tempest and Deathscythe, and would have caught the Tri-X had it not disengaged its backpack to be trapped instead. Mathias turned to try and free his teammates, only for the Spiegel and F91 to appear in front of him, the Shuffle Joker on the crater's edge keeping his teammates in place.

A com opened up to reveal the three members of team Vision, the three men were each dressed in white hooded jackets but otherwise average in looks, with one having curly brown hair and blue eyes, one with straight blond hair and green eyes, and the third having spiked black hair and brown eyes. "Truthfully," the blue eyed one started saying, "if it were anyone else, that would have worked. But not us."

The blond then picked up the conversation. "To be honest, you did hit us, but not the way you wanted. You hit our doppelgängers."

"Doppelgängers? What the hell does that mean?" Mathias questioned, stealthily activating the systems tied to his cables.

The final member of the team decided to answer. "We found an exploit in the system pertaining to gunplas and particle emission. When the system registers movement, it moves a particle copy of the gunpla that wraps around the physical, which allows for the realism. Thing is, the system only recognizes the copy, not the actual gunpla outside of the startup and damage application. As such, we built our gunplas to to have a special mode that projects that particle shell away from the model. We call them doppelgängers. This makes our gunpla unresponsive, but still register as active, while the doppelgängers appear in actual combat, and since there is nothing underneath, no damage is carried to our gunpla while yours are affected like usual. Unfortunately, the doppelgängers cannot function in highly concentrated particle zones, which results in the doppelgänger destabilizing and the particles reform around the gunpla. So, our trick is useless now thanks to your satellite cannon, but you are all damaged and drained from the fight while we are in pristine condition. In other words, you can't win, so just forfeit."

Mathias glared at his opponents before secretly glancing at his teammates, the cables of his gundam's arms just starting to poke out. They both nodded, realizing his plan to drain the enemies of their power. Smirking, Mathias pulled the Tri-X's arms back. "Sorry, but I have never gone down without a fight!" The Tri-X flung its arms forward, cables launching towards the Spiegel and F91. Both gundams immediately dodged the cords and turned back to face the Tri-X.

"Did you really think that would hit us?"

"Nope. Good thing I wasn't aiming for you. Hey Rose, this should be enough particles! Don't hold back!"

Both the Spiegel and F91 turned to see the cables connected to the Deathscythe and Tempest, and power was flowing through them. Specifically, power flowed from the Deathscythe EW Variant to the Tri-X, and then their combined power flowed into the Tempest, which began to glow pink as both its twin GN drives activated, a hurricane of particles flowing off it to absolutely disintegrate the chains binding it and the Deathscythe but doing nothing else as the cloud clung to the Tempest like a pinkish-red aura of death. The members of team Vision backed away from the Tempest, not even considering to eliminate the currently immobile but still active Deathscythe and Tri-X. Mathias had drained a bit too much power from their systems, and both gundams were in the red zone for power.

Rose looked at her systems, and seeing that everything related to particle storage and output were reading as incalculable, she grinned menacingly before looking at team Vision. "Doppelgängers, huh? Hope you don't mind me borrowing the idea."

 **(Start playing Touhou Hisoutensoku: Oriental Love Consultation (hidden track variant) link: youtube com watch?t=21s &v=O8-SrmzsrkE (start at 00:45))**

The six GN sword bits detached to float lazily around the Tempest Gundam before they were consumed in separate clouds of the oversaturated GN particles. Slowly the clouds shifted and condensed until six copies of the Tempest Gundam stood, all the same pinkish red color as the original. All seven of the Tempest Gundam stood stock still before vanishing, and unlike before against the Gouf Ignited, there was no evidence of their movement. A short moment, barely ten seconds after vanishing, all seven reappeared behind team Vision as a swirling cloud of GN particles formed around them, looking like falling sakura petals. Every time a particle touched one of the enemy team, that area just disintegrated, the residue joining the cloud. The cloud of particles, as well as the copies of the Tempest slowly dissipated as the trans-am aura disappeared, leaving the Tempest Gundam standing, hairline fractures running all across the frame. Even with the buffer of nearly three times the normal particle storage, the dual trans-am nearly tore it apart. Rose exhaled slowly as she looked back at team Vision as the GN sword bits reattached to the Tempest, one breaking apart before it returned while the others had several cracks running through them. Team Vision's gundams were covered in gaps and gashes that left them fully inoperable, and Rose said three words before the match was called.

"Burning Sakura Flurry."

"Battle ended."

 **(End OST if it isn't already over)**

* * *

The entire gymnasium was silent for half a minute before breaking out into cheers and applause. The sudden noise snapped Rose out of the focused state she was in and blinked in surprise at the damage her gunpla sustained before Mathias slapped her on the back. "Well, that was impressive! But we will be doing some upgrades so your gunpla will be able to handle that trans-am." Reaching over to pick up the Tempest Gundam, he let out a quiet whistle when the right arm cracked off the moment he touched it. "Yeah, definitely some extensive upgrades." Passing the gunpla to Rose, the whole team turned to face professor Culver, who was walking towards them with three envelopes.

"Congratulations on winning the tournament you three! And might I add that it's good to see such promising gunpla battlers in our school. These envelopes have your tickets to Tallahassee for the state competition, as well as nine extras for family and friends. The tournament will be held one month from now, so use this time to train yourselves. Good luck."

The three watched as professor Culver headed off as the crowd of students and teachers dispersed before Mathias latched his arms around Adrien and Rose's necks. "Now then, I say it's time to celebrate! Party at 'The winning Streak', my treat!"

* * *

 **And so, the School Tournament is over, and with a somewhat narrow victory as well. That's right, I am gonna try to keep things from being too much of a curbstomp too often. Otherwise things wouldn't be too fun. Up next will be, well, I guess you could call it filler, before the state tournament. OC submissions are still open, so if you have some floridians to throw at me, or even some state wide contenders for later, please submit them. They will make my job so much easier. See you all next time! JA NE!**


End file.
